I go 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and tenderness of a mother." The only equivalent 

 to this, if such it can be called, that I can find is 

 that of a Brahma hen mentioned by Mr. Romanes, 

 *' Brain," by Bastian, p. 233, which after sitting on 

 dummies for about a "month, took almost imme- 

 diately, remaining for rather more than a fortnight 

 with three orphan ferrets." But there is this great 

 difference between the two performers in the drama, 

 that one was actually and truly a full-fledged hen, 

 while the other was — well, let us put it mildly, only 

 half a cock, if so much, and there is as far as I know, 

 no instance on record of the male of the domestic 

 fowl taking to hatching so kindly as this capon is 

 said to have done. It is, however, but right that I 

 should add that I have little or no practical know- 

 ledge of such matters, and that I am a seeker after 

 rather than a giver of information in this letter. On 

 the other hand, a well-known observer has said, 

 " The Obstetric Memoirs and Contributions of James 

 Y. Simpson, M.D.," edited by Priestley and Storer, 

 vol. ii. p. 276 tliat when an animal is castrated before 

 it has reached the time of puberty the distinctive 

 characters of the male are in general never developed, 

 and . . . their want of masculine energy and vigour 

 assimilate them more in appearance and habits to 

 the female than to the male type." And this latter 

 approximation may serve to divest, if it cannot explain, 

 the strange freak mentioned above of much of its 

 strangeness and individuality. Again, there is no- 

 thing more wonderful in a capon incubating than 

 there is in a man suckling, and numerous instances 

 of this feat are, pace the cloud of witnesses, men- 

 tioned by physiologists and others. I have collected 

 several of these myself in a paper on metastasis I 

 published a few years ago, in the " Indian Annals of 

 Medical Science," and I was more than once at fault, 

 during the early part of my residence in that country 

 (India) as to the sex of the nondescript creatures who 

 prowl for nameless purposes in many of its bazaars. 

 Mr. Darwin alludes at some length to this peculiarity 

 in his "Animals, and Plants under Domestication," 

 vol. ii. pp. 51-4. And after observing that "the 

 flesh of rats and native dogs was highly relished " 

 by the Maories, Dr. Thomson says, "The Story of 

 New Zealand," vol. i. p. 155, that "some of the males 

 (of the latter) were castrated to increase their size 

 and improve the flavour of their flesh" and, some 

 Brillat Savarin of the future may possibly thank me 

 for the hint. Whether any similar procedure is 

 enforced at Otaheite, where dog is an equally 

 favourite relish, I have been unable to learn. But 

 the subject has, at least, a culinary interest, and 

 anyhow its considerations may enable us to realise 

 the truth of the old distich which says that — 



"Our own blue smoke is warmer than their fire. 

 Domestic food is wholesome though 'tis homely. 

 And foreign dainties (are) poisonous though tasteful. " 



— W. Ciirraii, As/ifon-iinder-Lync. 



POLEMONIUM. — In answer to a request for infor- 

 mation by C. W. Holgate in the Science-Gossip of 

 May, the Polemosiuni cariileuin is growing at 

 Llandaff, not quite wild, for it is in the garden, but 

 it is growing and spreading in spite of the gardener, 

 and refuses to be exterminated. — E. J\I. Parsons, 



Blackbirds and Adders. — Walking on a com- 

 mon, on a warm day last April, I noticed a black- 

 bird fluttering on the ground ; it flew away 

 unwillingly on my near approach, and at the same 

 time a large female adder crawled away^no doubt 

 the poor blackbird was "charmed" by the adder, 

 and, had I not approached in time would have been 

 swallowed. I may add here a few notes about the 



adder, or viper. They rarely hiss except after a 

 ! slight sun-shower of rain, when they delight to come 

 ! out of their holes and crawl about ; their hissing 

 ' arises, I believe, simply out of their enjoyment of 

 ! life as the song of birds, or the chirp of the grass- 

 hopper. All the rustic people in North Hampshire 

 [ believe that they will swallow their young on any 

 threatened danger ; many trustworthy labourers have 

 told me that they themselves witnessed this curious 

 sight. They frequently hybernate in faggots of wood, 

 appearing from their winter quarters in March, if the 

 weather be warm and sunny. — G. Dcwar. 



Stoats. — On the 9th of May two friends and myself 

 discovered the nest of a stoat in what I think must have 

 been a very unusual place. She had taken posses- 

 sion of a jackdaw's nest in a hollow bough of an elm, 

 the trunk of which was quite perpendicular, and 

 without anything to assist the animal to ascend, the 

 nest being fifteen feet from the ground. After con- 

 siderable trouble we dislodged the stoat, and then 

 found in the nest ten young ones, part of a great 

 spotted woodpecker, a starling, the wings of two 

 jackdaws, and the remains of the jackdaw's eggs. 

 The stoat went to ground, but was caught in a trap 

 later in the dav ; it was a doe of very large size. — 

 IV. Wells Bladen. 



Hawfinches. — Referring to the notes from 

 several of your correspondents respecting the oc- 

 currence of these birds, I may say that I have found 

 their nests in Sandon Park, Staffordshire, within the 

 last two years ; and some friends who have resided 

 in the neighbourhood longer than I have, inform 

 me that they have frequently found the nests and 

 seen the birds in the same place. — IV. Wells 

 Balden. 



Snakes Sloughing. — As far as my experience 

 goes, having kept several species of snakes British 

 and foreign, the operation of casting their slough is 

 always begun at the head, leaving the slough turned 

 wrong side out. I have a beautiful slough of an 

 African colubrium snake over four feet long. With 

 my slow-worms, on the contrary, I have never got 

 a perfect slough, mine having always cast theirs 

 piecemeal, except an inch or two of the tail, which 

 slipped off like a sheath. I shall be glad to know if 

 this has been the experience of any others who have 

 kept these pets. — J. M. Campbell, 



A curious Wasp's Nest. — I have just seen, 

 July 5, a very remarkable phenomenon. A colony of 

 wasps have built their vespiary on the wall of a stone 

 villa residence in the suburbs of this town. The 

 nest, which is a large one, is built under the shelter 

 of the pediment surmounting a porch constituting the 

 front entrance, and is placed in the angle where the 

 pediment forms a junction with the wall. The nest 

 is about eigliteen feet above the level of the road. 

 It is of a dull, dark, slaty colour, and has a series of 

 concentrical grooves which, from their ribbed appear- 

 ance, are evidently designed to afford security and 

 strength to this singular and ingenious structure. 

 Ingress and egress is obtained by an aperture of one 

 inch diameter at the base of the nest. The entrance 

 seems to be carefully watched, a number of the 

 insects acting as sentinels and guards, while other 

 members of the community come and go in active 

 performance of various duties. The gentleman who 

 lives in the house only discovered the nest titree days 

 ago, and consequently had no opportunity of ob- 

 serving these singular creatures at work. A neigh- 

 bour, however, on the oi">posite side of the road had 

 seen a number of wasps in his garden apparently 



