282 



HARDWICKE'S SCJEJSICE-GOSSIP, 



Scarcity of Wasps. — Like a number of corre- 

 spondents, I have noticed the scarcity of wasps in 

 this district. I do not remember seeing a wasp 

 since the first week in June. I have not heard of 

 nests being seen anywhere near ; there were a great 

 aiumber of females in the early jjart of spring. — J . J. 



Scarcity of Sky-larks. — A number of cor- 

 respondents have given their opinion on the scarcity 

 of sky-larks. I think none of them are satisfactory, 

 nor am I able to give a satisfactory one. I think 

 tliere is another cause which may help to lessen their 

 numbers, that is the rooks. I believe these are moie 

 Jikely to destroy either the eggs or young bird than 

 the starlings. I saw a rook eating a young lapwing, 

 it flew off with a part of it, but dropped it. I saw- 

 some young lapwings running about in the field the 

 day before. I have seen the eggs of lapwings which 

 had been carried from the nest and destroyed after 

 a flock of rooks had been in the fields feeding. I 

 have seen the nests of other ground-building birds 

 turned out of the hole, sometimes an egg or part of 

 one left after a number of rooks had been in the 

 fleld.-y. J. 



The Late Gale. — An ill wind always blows 

 somebody good. It has done a deal oi damage 

 .amongst our vegetable kingdom. Trees two or 

 three hundred years old have been up-rooted, 

 branches torn off, and trunks broken clean in halves. 

 It has also done a deal of good ; it has opened up 

 many secrets of nature to the young as well as the 

 old naturalist. Ants' nests have been brought to 

 light from the centre of old trees, and also different 

 burrowing larvre and beetles were met with ; numbers 

 of rare insects we found in the rotten wood. Pupa; 

 likewise turned out of their warm beds. Naturalists 

 ought now to be hard at work gathering in their 

 second harvest, before the birds and other enemies 

 have done it for them. I have found some good 

 specimens from one or two trees which were blown 

 down by the wind. Amongst them was a nest of the 

 yellow ant {Formica flava) constructed of wood, in 

 the hollow trunk of an ash-tree; a piece of which is 

 now in the collection of the Norwich Natural Science 

 Club. 1 also found a piece of it made of earth, but 

 it was very brittle and broke before I reached home. 

 Under the bark of another tree I found some very 

 curious larvffi about \ inch long. They were of a 

 greyish colour, having two tufts of brown hair on 

 each side of the tail (name unknown).— .£■. P. Dyball, 

 Nortvich. 



Heather. — I had sent me lately a quantity of 

 heather {Calhiua vulgaris), and amongst it was just 

 a little of tiie white variety. I have seen it men- 

 tioned in one or two botanical books that a white 

 variety is to be got, and I should like to know if it is 

 common. What I have seen is the common purple, 

 which, mingled with the gorse, makes our heaths look 

 so beautiful — the one taking the place of the other. 

 I have only got one piece and do not think I shall 

 be able to get any more this year ; or I would have 

 -forwarded some with pleasure. 



Food for Lampreys. — Doubtless small worms 

 or, in default, raw or slightly cooked meat or grubs 

 would suit lampreys. 1 can testify by long experi- 

 ence to the merits of the pope in an aquarium. No 

 fish bears confinement so well, or becomes tame so 

 soon. He will undoubtedly devour any small fry in 

 his company, but the size of his mouth will barely 

 .allow him to swallow fishes more than an inch long, 

 and he will do no further harm to larger fishes than 

 •occasionally shoot out his lips and send them out of 



his way with considerable force if his dignity is 

 offended. He will eat worms, grubs, bluebottles, 

 but not paste. The one I had in my aquarium was a 

 very large specimen, in a very short time he learned to 

 take food from my fingers, in fact he came up to the 

 surface whenever one came near, and thrust his nose 

 out of the water, blowing bubbles to attract attention 

 (presumably). Large flies were his great delight, 

 which he took down to the bottom and crunched 

 with his teeth, as one could distinctly hear. He lived 

 about four years. Upon the whole, therefore, as an 

 intelligent, interesting, and by no means voracious 

 fish, and one easy to keep in an aquarium, I strongly 

 commend him. — //'. B. R. 



Remarkable Tree. — Under the heading of " A 

 Remarkable Tree," I see one of your correspon- 

 dents gives an account of a certain tree, wJiich is 

 supposed to draw upwards into its branches, by some 

 unseen attraction, any bones that may be placed 

 under it. At the first glance the story seems very 

 strange, but a little thought will convince any one that 

 there must be some other agent at work, besides the 

 tree and the bones. As it is "quite impossible they 

 could be placed there by human agency," is it likely 

 that they could not be conveyed thither by some bird, 

 or climbing animal ? It does not appear that any one 

 has seen the bones actually ascending, and we must 

 no doubt look for a solution of the mystery to the 

 prowlings of some nocturnal carnivorous creature. — 

 J. A. IVheldon. 



Turnstone. — Would some of your Ornithological 

 readers kindly inform me whether the account given 

 of the Turnstone in the " Life of a Scotch Naturalist," 

 by S. Smiles, is to be relied on, as I have heard it 

 asserted that this bird could not have moved the cod- 

 fish as stated, p. 246. If this bird is web-footed it could 

 not have scraped away the sand from beneath the 

 fish as stated. — S. A. Brcnaii, Clerk. 



Frog-Spawn, &c. — In reply to query of P. W. A. 

 (" Frog-Spawn") of last month, I may mention that 

 having some young tadpoles of frog in the house, I 

 noticed one night after dark that two or three of them 

 were greedily feeding upon one of their fellows. 

 Next morning " itoii est inventus,^'' there was not a 

 trace of him left. The conclusion is obvious, I have 

 no doubt that those of P. W. A. did likev/ise. Lots 

 were cast during the darkness, and nothing of the 

 unfortunate one was allowed to see the morning 

 light.— IV. B. R. 



Do Tadpoles eat each other ? — I have 

 proved beyond a doubt that they do, for I have 

 caught them in the act, not only once, but many 

 times. They are not pugnacious creatures, and will 

 not molest each other as long as they remain in health, 

 but as soon as one shows signs of ill health or 

 weakness the healthy ones keep a sharp look out, and 

 almost before the poor little thing expires, they will 

 pitch upon it and eat it up. Tadpoles like all other 

 creatures are liable to die, especially when kept 

 artificially, and too many in a small quantity of water. 

 When tliey put forth their fore-limbs or graspers, as I 

 believe they are called, they appear particularly weak 

 and many die, and those tadpoles which are not so 

 fully developed pick their bones clean. I have rescued 

 many a skeleton from their cannibal grasp ; indeed I 

 have pulled the skeletons out of the water with the 

 tadpoles clinging to them. When they are still more 

 advanced, and have become lung-breathing batrach- 

 ians with yet half of the tadpole's tail, they die and 

 are speedily devoured by their surviving relations. If 

 they were in the habit of biting each other's tails off 



