GLEANINGS. 201 



Paris Exhibition. — Nature says, "We learu, with pleasure, that at a 

 meeting held at Barrow-iu-Furaess, on June 3, the Committee of the 

 Naturalists' Field Club belonging to that town determined to organise a 

 scheme for sending representatives (artisans, if possible) to the Paris 

 Exhibition, with the view of collecting information in connection with 

 the various branches of science which are there practically illustrated, 

 one of the conditions being that the result of the observations should be 

 imparted to the club in the form of lectures during the ensuing winter. 

 Promises of substantial support have been received from several of the 

 leading men in the district, and the scheme is expected to be shortly in 

 worlting order. 



Tame-bred Mallards. — Mr. W. H. Roach says in the Field : — " I 

 reside between two and three miles from the Liverpool Exchange, so you 

 may guess my place is not very secluded. About ten years ago I bi-ought 

 from Ireland nine or ten wild ducklings that had been hatched by a hen, 

 turned them out on the pond in our garden, never interfered with their 

 wings, but fed them regularly. They remained on the pond, (70ft. by 

 40ft.) quite tame, and used to come to the hall door for food. However, 

 in the course of time and occasional rambles, they all got shot or other- 

 wise put an end to, with the exception of one mallard, and he for several 

 years past has left me at Christmas, goes I don't know where, but returns 

 as certainly the last week in May, and as tame as ever, taking bread 

 almost from my hand. I have met no one acquainted with a similar 

 case." 



Crusade against Sparrows. — From the Toronto Leader we learn that 

 the English Sparrow is no longer a favourite in some parts of America. 

 The Nuttal Ornithological Club, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has made 

 the bird the subject of grave dehberation, and having duly weighed the 

 evidence pro and con. have decided that it ought to be exterminated. It 

 is aUeged that the native birds are driven away wherever the sparrow 

 has gained an ascendancy. 



Microscopy. — Mr. Dudgeon makes the following suggestion as to 

 examination of small organisms in water: — "Inclose the objective in a 

 brass or other metal tube, having its lower end closed by a piece of thin 

 microscopic glass, coming close up to but not touching the object glass. 

 With this protection we can plunge the end of the microscope into a 

 small tank, fiUed with water, containing the small hvings ox'ganisms, and 

 examine them at leisure." 



Ecparts of Societies 



i 



BIRMINGHAM NATUE\L HISTOPtY AND MICROSCOPICAL 

 SOCIETY.— Biological Section. — May 14th.— Dr. Piickards read a valuable 

 paper " On the Ear in Man and other Vertebrates," in which he pointed 

 out that, as a descent was made in the scale of vertebrates, the external 

 and middle ears differed in important particulars. In referring to the 

 fuHctious of different parts of the internal ear, he ascribed to the cochlea 

 that of estimating the quality of sound, and declared himself a believer 

 in the view warmly advocated by Professer Crum-Brown that the semi- 

 circular canals were the organs of a special sense apart from that of hearing, 

 viz., the sense of rotation. Dr. Eickards expressed the opinion that important 

 light would some day be thrown on the functions of the different parts 

 of the internal ear in man by a comparative study of the anatomy of the orgnn 

 of hearing in vertebrates in connection with their varying hearing powers. Tlie 

 paper was illustrated by excellent diagrams and wax models, as well as by a fine 

 collection of specimens, amongst which some lent by Mr. W. K. Hughes were 



