54 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



room, so under constant observation. He soon 

 became perfectly tame, and was very amusing. 

 When the winter came on, I remarked that though 

 "Nelson'' was assuming the grey sparrow-like 

 plumage of that season, there were no black feathers 

 about the cage. Examination showed that he got 

 rid of the melanin granules from his feathers in 

 some way unknown to me, I concluded from want 

 of vital power. When spring returned, he moulted, 

 but not all his feathers, and we distinctly saw the 

 change in his plumage, to be more precise, in his 

 feathers, from the brown, to the black of the nup- 

 tial garment. I attributed this to an access of 

 vitality, which then came on with the breeding 

 season. Surely this indicated blood circulation in 

 the feathers. I have at this moment a great pet, a 

 little common red-pole linnet, taken from the nest. 

 He has been with me for two breeding-seasons, and 

 yet for want of the excitement of the presence of a 

 female of his own species, the breeding force has 

 not been developed, and he has never assumed the 

 brilliant plumage of the season. Surely the assump- 

 tion of the breeding-plumage shows that there 

 must be some circulation. " Nelson " lived with me 

 several years, and we always noticed the gradual 

 change in coloration of the feathers each year. Poor 

 fellow ! His fate was a singular one. In the same 

 aviary with him, among other birds, was a pair of the 

 hanging-nest-builders (Hyphantornis capensis) — the 

 birds that weave the wonderful retort-shaped nests 

 from the outer fibres of the aloe leaves. To amuse 

 them w-e gave them bits of thread, etc., which they 

 wove into the bars of one end of the cage, making 

 an impenetrable, unpickable mass. One unlucky 

 day they got hold of a very long thread, which they 

 fastened by the two ends to the roof of the cage, 

 just over a perch, thus forming a loop into which 

 poor " Nelson " got his head, and, struggling to ex- 

 tricate himself, twisted it tight round his neck, and I 

 found him in the morning strangled. — E. L. Lay aid, 

 Otterbourne, BudleigJi Salterton. 



Reptiles in Captivity. — My fernery may almost 

 be considered a vivarium for reptiles of various 

 kinds. I have no surer harbinger of Spring than 

 the yellow- bespangled and much-abused salamander. 

 Several of these have made their appearance during 

 the past week from the holes and crannies in the 

 rockery work, whilst now the Grecian firefrog the 

 Italian green-tree frog, the natterjacks and toads, 

 have made their appearance, and with the continu- 

 ance of the warm and genial sunshine, the whole 

 fernery will soon re-echo with the musical love- 

 notes of these various reptiles. I have sometimes 

 kept the tree-frog in large numbers, and during the 

 breeding season (although they have never bred 

 with me as yet), their cheerful chirrup has been so 

 loud as to be heard a long way off, and many that 

 have escaped from captivity have disclosed their 

 whereabouts by their voices. Owing to the heating 

 apparatus being out of order I had several degrees 

 of frost in my fernery during the winter, and I am 

 much afraid many of my scarcer reptiles will have 

 succumbed to the cold. One warm day in February 

 a large and savage African lizard came out of its 

 hiding-place in a semi torpid condition, and advan- 

 tage was taken of its torpidity to capture it and 

 send it away, as I found when too late last year, that 

 these larger reptiles devoured the smaller ones with 

 a most ravenous appetite, and by the rapidity of 

 their movements no ordinary frog or toad or newt 

 had a chance of escape. I hope this season to take 

 special note of the breeding of the salamander, and 

 if I have anything new to report, I will at once 

 write to you. — Henry J. Barber, Brighouse, Halifax. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — At the 

 Meeting of this Society on March 20th, Mr. W. N. 

 Shaw, F.R.S., delivered a lecture on " The Motion 

 of Clouds considered with reference to their mode 

 of formation," which was illustrated by experi- 

 ments. The question proposed for consideration 

 was how far the apparent motion of cloud was a 

 satisfactory indication of the motion of the air in 

 which the cloud is formed. The mountain cloud- 

 cap was cited as an instance of a stationary cloud 

 formed in air moving sometimes with great 

 rapidity ; ground fog, thunderclouds, and cumulus 

 clouds were also referred to in this connection. 

 The two causes of formation of cloud were next 

 considered, viz. (1) the mixing of masses of air at 

 different temperatures, and (2) the dynamical 

 cooling of air by the reduction of its pressure with- 

 out supplying heat from the outside. The two 

 methods of formation were illustrated by experi- 

 ments. A sketch of the supposed motion of air 

 near the centre of a cyclone, showed the proba- 

 bility of the clouds formed by the mixing of air 

 being carried along wdth the air after they were 

 formed, while w 7 hen cloud is being formed by 

 expansion, circumstances connected with the for- 

 mation of drops of water on the nuclei to be found 

 in the air, such as dust and smoke, and the 

 maintenance of the particles in a state of suspension, 

 make it probable that the apparent motion of such 

 a cloud is a bad indication of the motion of the 

 air. After describing some special cases, Mr. Shaw 

 referred to the meteorological effects of the thermal 

 disturbance which must be introduced by the 

 condensation of water vapour, and he attributed 

 the violent atmospheric disturbances accompany- 

 ing tropical rains to this cause. The difference in 

 the character of nuclei for the deposit of water- 

 drops was also pointed out and illustrated by the 

 exhibition of coloured halos formed under special 

 conditions when the drops were sufficiently uniform 

 in size. 



City of Loxdox Entomological and Natural 

 History Society. — At the Meeting of March 5th, 

 1895, it was announced that the Coleoptera section of 

 the " London Fauna List/' which this Society has 

 undertaken to draw up, has been compiled by Mr. 

 H. Hensler in a masterly manner, and is now in the 

 Society's library in manuscript form. Its magnitude 

 may be estimated when it is know-n that it contains 

 records of more than half the total number of 

 species of British beetles, with particulars as to 

 localities and methods of capture. Its only weakness 

 is the absence of records of the groups of beetles 

 inhabiting ants'-nests. Notes as to any authentic 

 captures of any of these species will, therefore, be 

 gladly received and duly acknowledged by the 

 secretary of the Society, London Institution, 

 Finsbury Circus, E.C. Exhibits: Mr. Bell, a female 

 specimen of Argynnis adippe, from the New Forest, 

 having a portion of the right upper wing somewhat 

 bleached, but otherwise perfect. Mr. Clark, a short 

 series of Cucullia graphalii from the collection of the 

 late Wm. Machin, who himself bred them from 

 larvae obtained at Sevenoaks. Mr. Southev, a 



