HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



69 



teen years ago, in the month of February, I think 

 it was, there passed over my native village (Fyvie) 

 at 7 A.M., a terrible thunderstorm. The lightning 

 was in the form of balls of fire. These struck the 

 parish church, and overthrew the steeple, entered 

 the church by the clock wire from the bell, ran along 

 the ceiling, throwing down most of the plaster, and 

 finally escaped by completely shattering the two 

 front windows below the steeple. A gentleman of 

 my acquaintance was an eye-witness of the destruction, 

 and said the balls struck the steeple. There was 

 very little thunder, with the exception of one tremen- 

 dous peal not to be compared with any that I have 

 heard since. Would this have^aeen the bursting of 

 any of the balls already referred to ? — A Reader. 



Sheet Lightning. — Several of your corre- 

 spondents have given their explanations of "sheet 

 lightning." As none of them seem to be satisfactory to 

 me, I will try my explanation, for others to judge 

 what it is worth. Imprimis, I suggest that there is 

 no such thing as sheet lightning as different from 

 spark lightning. What we see is merely a lighting 

 up of visible clouds by a spark, so far distant from 

 the observer that the spark is from the curvature 

 of the earth invisible to him ; and so distant that 

 sound is inaudible. Such illumination of the visible 

 clouds may happen from discharge fifty or sixty 

 miles distant, depending on the elevation and 

 distance of the illuminated cloud or sky, and of 

 the illuminating spark. When next your correspond- 

 ents note this effect, if they will make due inquiry, 

 I predict that they will learn there was spark 

 lightning at the moment in the proper direction. — 

 Charles Stodder. 



Breeding Java Sparrows. — Java sparrows are 

 not at all difficult to breed in this country, if a pair 

 can be secured, but as the sexes exactly resemble 

 each other, this is difficult. I had two that I kept 

 in an ordinary canary breeding-cage, and they made 

 themselves a nest of the stalks of groundsel which I 

 gave them to eat, and laid a number of eggs, on 

 which both sat assiduously. No young ones re- 

 sulted, and I afterwards ascertained that they were 

 both females. I tried a number, but did not then 

 succeed in getting a cock bird. After a while, how- 

 ever, I obtained one, and thinking they would be 

 more likely to succeed in a large aviary, turned them 

 into one, where they built a nest of hay, lined with 

 feathers, in a hollow log, and laid, but were disturbed 

 by mice, and I had no young ones from them. I 

 then gave over keeping them, as they are not inter- 

 esting birds, and are so cheap they are not worth 

 the trouble of breeding. The eggs, which are usually 

 five in number, are about the same size as those of a 

 canary, and pure white. A friend of mine who has 

 bred them without difficulty, tells me that they must 

 be supplied with boiled rice, ants' eggs, and chopped 

 fowls' .eggs, when they have young ones, in addi- 

 tion to their ordinary fare. They begin to lay in 

 January, if kept warm, but about April if in a cold 

 room. They have the advantage of being very 

 hardy. — ]V. T. Greene, M.D., Peckham Rye. 



Climbing Powers of the Toad. — Some years 

 ago, I and a friend went to visit a friend, Mr. Nathan 

 Cronshaw ; he had just finished potting his auriculas 

 the day before. I noticed one which had the soil 

 disturbed, and the plant up and almost out of the 

 pot. I called his attention to it, and on his looking 

 for the cause, behold ! there was buried in the soil a 

 very fine toad ; he pulled him out, saying the plant 

 was too valuable for a toad's lodgings. He trimmed 

 up the plant again, and in about half an hour, going 



by the same place, the toad had got in the same pot 

 again, displacing both soil and plant just as before ; 

 he pulled out the toad and put him over a high fence 

 at the bottom of the garden, thinking he had done 

 with him. However, the next day Mr. Toad was in 

 the same pot again ; he pulled him out again and sent 

 him a field or two off, but he never came again. Here 

 is an instance of the climbing powers of the toad, and 

 also selecting the same pot and plant three times in 

 succession. The pot was six inches high, and worse to 

 get up than a cylinder would have been, being an 

 inverted frustum of a cone. — William Bentley. 



Hawthorn, Orchis, &c. — Like many of your 

 correspondents, I too can testify to the great scanti- 

 ness of hawthorn blossom last year. I live in an 

 agricultural district where all the hedges are made of 

 hawthorn, of v/hich there are scores of miles, and 

 during all my walks I only saw four thorns with 

 bloom on them. Moreover, I had fifteen scarlet 

 thorns in my garden, but I had not one bunch of 

 bloom on them all together. Some ten or twelve 

 years ago I remember the same thing happening, but 

 that year I only saw one in bloom. But apples and 

 pears have been just the same with us ; we have had 

 very few blooming this year, a large number not 

 having a single bunch on, and some of them which 

 cover a house end of ten or twelve yards in breadth. 

 Now it is very easy to find the cause of this : it was 

 the very dark, cold and wet seacon of 1879, as it was 

 in the autumn of this year 1880, that the bloom buds 

 were made or ought to have been, and all plants 

 which make the bloom bud the autumn preceding the 

 spring in which they bloom have been subject to the 

 same climatic influence. Rhododendrons have been 

 the same. Orchis, tulips, &c. are no exceptions to the 

 same influences, but differently affected, as tulips 

 have bloomed very well this year generally, but the 

 Orchis class are known to bloom in fits ; you go one 

 year and cannot find one, and the year after they 

 will be abundant. I have a few more notes for you 

 which I will forward you when I have leisure. — 

 IVilliam Bentley. 



English Cormorants. — The query of J. K. 

 in the October number (p. 237) relative to the English 

 species of cormorant is suggestive of many thoughts 

 and speculations. Waterton expressly affirms in his 

 Essay that "the crested comorant, with a white 

 spot on each thigh, is merely the common cormorant 

 in his nuptial dress." There is no doubt that the 

 crested cormorant of Bewick's " History of British 

 Birds " is in reality the black species in spring ap- 

 parel ; and if this be the bird to which the excellent 

 old squire alludes, no doubt his view is correct. 

 There is no doubt also that the vast majority of 

 ornithologists recognize two different species of 

 British cormorants. It must be admitted, however, 

 that the structural and other difference between them 

 is comparatively insignificant. There exists some 

 slight difference in the number of the tail feathers, in 

 the shape of the back and wing feathers, in the 

 presence of a whitish band on the throat and thighs, 

 and in the total length and breadth of the body. Are 

 these diversities sufficient to constitute a specific 

 distinction, or a variety merely ? The genus is a very 

 widely distributed one, and therefore subject to great 

 variation, arising (shall we say ?) from the diverse 

 physical conditions which its species encounter in 

 different parts of the world. But there are other 

 differences between the black cormorant and the 

 shag which seem to indicate a fundamental feature. 

 The latter resides and breeds chiefly in caverns and 

 fissures of the rocks, it is not easily tamed, and does 

 not commonly visit fresh-water or ascend far up 



