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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



part ' of this is that the kabydias should be classed 

 with caterpillars. The kabydia {Platyphylhim conca- 

 viim) belongs among the grasshoppers rather more 

 closely than any other insects familiar to the English 

 people and is not an objectionable insect except for his 

 noise at night. None of our caterpillars in this 

 country are musical or vocal. The English sparrows 

 were brought to this country to destroy caterpillars 

 which infested the trees planted along the streets of 

 our cities (our native birds being frightened out of 

 the cities as they became closely built up). This 

 same English sparrow has become entirely acclimated 

 and has spread rapidly through the country, and now 

 makes his principal food on vegetables — leaving to 

 our native birds the insects. He is often much com- 

 plained of, and is increasing so rapidly as to call 

 many maledictions on his head. — E. C. Morris. 



The Diminution of small Birds. — The late 

 severe winter seems to have played sad havoc with 

 those of our smaller birds which remain with us all 

 the year, and any one who has paid any attention to 

 the subject will endorse the opinion that their ranks 

 have been terribly thinned. Chief amongst the 

 sufferers seem to have been the thrush tribe. During 

 the frost I found many lying dead. In this neigh- 

 bourhood, where the woods and groves formerly 

 resounded from morn till night with the vocal 

 melody of the thrush, blackbird, and missel thrush, 

 scarcely one is now to be heard or seen. The 

 yellowhammer, wren, robin, and even the hardy tits, 

 have also suffered and their numbers are but scanty. 

 Sparrows and chaffinches, which resorted in great 

 numbers to the farmyards for food and shelter 

 during the cold weather, seem fully as numerous as 

 heretofore — but all other commoner species are 

 sensibly lessened in number. Until the .trrival of 

 our migratory visitors, which was later than usual 

 this season, I sadly missed the cheery "voices of 

 the woods " which herald the approach of spring. 

 Apropos to the scarcity of the skylark, which has 

 excited the attention of many observers, and various 

 theories regarding which have already been discussed 

 in the pages of this journal ; the following extract 

 from a recent letter in the " Preston Guardian " will be 

 interesting to those who, like myself, take an interest 

 in the subject: — "Bird-catchers are now more 

 numerous and more efiicient in their calling, have 

 greater demand for birds, and stronger inducements 

 to take them than ever they had. In April last 

 year I met with one who had been plying his art in 

 taking skylarks. He had gone over the fields a 

 distance of two miles, and had taken seventeen birds, 

 all of Mhich he affirmed were males. On asking 

 him how he knew they were all males, he replied, 

 in nearly every field there are a pair — a male and 

 female — and the cock bird appears to think that no 

 other male has a right to sing in his field, or near 

 his nest, and therefore when 1 put ' Jack ' down (a 

 tame lark which I have in a little cage) about the 

 middle of a field, he begins to sing, and then the 

 male lark comes in a fury to drive him away, alights 

 on the top of the cage, sticks fast in the bird-lime, 

 and is at once a prisoner. Each of these birds had a 

 mate and a nest, and had they been left alone each 

 pair would at the least have reared eight young ones, 

 and the seventeen 136. Why the cruelty of separa- 

 ting the males and females at the beginning of the 

 breeding season ? Why the destruction in reality 

 of so many birds ? This cruelty and destruction was 

 perpetrated that the bird-catcher might have \s. %d. 

 apiece for his birds, and the bird fanciers of 

 Manchester, to which place they had to be sent, 

 might keep the wonderful songsters, which should 



have been free to answer the end of their creation, 

 close prisoners all their days." Doubtless the writer 

 of the above refers to the Fylde district, the exten- 

 sive arable lands of which afford to the skylark better 

 protection than the pasture-lands in this locality, 

 from the various causes assigned for its decrease, 

 other than the one attributed to "bird catchers." 

 Through part of this district I myself passed on the 

 8th of May, and was delighted, as I walked along 

 the pretty country lanes of Whestby and Wrea 

 Green, to hear several larks trilling out their sweet 

 notes as they hovered over the corn and clover 

 fields. — R. Standen, GoosiiargJi, Preston, Lancashire. 



Newts near London. — S. Roberts inquires for 

 a locality near London where he can obtain newts. 

 South of the Thames there are numerous ponds 

 where they are plentiful. The ponds on Wandsworth 

 Common swarm with both cristatus and punctatus, 

 so do some of the ponds on Putney Heath. In 

 Croxted Lane, Dulwich, a rural spot two or three 

 years ago, but now given up to the builder, there is a 

 sluggish stream which flows through the railway 

 embankment. In this stream, at the point where it 

 leaves the roadside for the railway, newts abound. 

 This locality may be reached by train from Ludgate 

 Hill to either Heme Hill or Dulwich stations. If it 

 will suit S. Roberts better he may take the train from 

 Ludgate to Nunhead Junction. On leaving the 

 station turn to the left and keep along the left side of 

 the cemetery, cross the field and make for a railway 

 arch on the left. Passing under the railway, he will 

 see a broken-down fence, still on the left, and in the 

 centre of the field a pond. Besides being a locality 

 for newts, this pond is also a station for the ivy- 

 leaved duckweed {Lemna trisulca). All these ponds 

 contain, in addition to the newts, numbers of water- 

 beetles with their usual companions, the water-bugs 

 and snails. Many other ponds might be mentioned, 

 but I think these will satisfy your correspondent. — 

 E. Step. 



Newts near London. — S. Roberts will find the 

 large- and smooth-water newts in the ponds on either 

 Wandsworth or Tooting Commons. I have found 

 Tooting Common the better, when collecting beetles. 

 — Walter A. Fearce. 



Newts near London. — In reply to the question 

 of " Newts near London," put by Mr. Roberts in 

 your last number, he will find plenty of them on the 

 marshes near Walthamstow. The train from Liver- 

 pool Street to Hoe Street station, is the best way 

 of reaching this locality.— IVm. Talbot King, M.D. 



Habit of Cats. — Your correspondent H. M. 

 enquires why cats alternately lift up and set down 

 their two forefeet preparatory to a "snooze." The 

 question is an interesting one, inasmuch as it refers 

 to an action which is hereditary, and which is one of 

 many that exist in domesticated animals, and which 

 may be traced back for their origin to the state of the 

 animal in its wild and therefore natural condition. 

 The wild cat, the antecedent of our domesticated 

 animal, performs this operation in order to make its 

 bed flat and comfortable in the hollow tree, where 

 moss, dead leaves and decayed wood form its couch. 

 Our domestic cat does the same thing on the Persian 

 rug, not because it is necessary, but in accordance 

 with a semi-reflex action, which is the existing proof 

 and trace of the origin of our domesticated and 

 " civilised " pussy. Our dogs, of many breeds, still 

 retain an interesting habit which is also to be traced 

 back to the animal in its wild or normal condition. 



