SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



179 



NOTES OF A HOME NATURALIST. 

 By Emily J. Climenson. 



'THE home naturalist has betaken herself the 

 -*- last two months to " fresh woods and pastures 

 new," spending the time at South Brent, in South 

 Devon. The first six weeks fine weather prevailed, 

 but lately it has been an almost continual down- 

 pour. There is no doubt this is a rainy place as a 

 rule, probably from the proximity of Dartmoor — 

 Ugborough Beacon, one of the finest of the 

 southern tors, being close by. The River Avon 

 runs through our grounds here. The rapidity with 

 which this river rises and falls in a few hours, ac- 

 cording to weather, is remarkable. A small stream, 

 not above two yards wide, also rushes through 

 the grounds with the rapidity of a mill-chase. 

 When I first came here, in the drought, the miller 

 who turns his mill lower down, had the stream 

 dammed, in order to clean out the channel, and it 

 was reduced literally dry, with the exception of 

 small puddles. In these I saw some boys search- 

 ing, and found they were catching small trout and 

 eels, though the depth, when full, is not more than 

 a foot. I bought the largest confectioner's glass I 

 could in the village, and placed a few trout and 

 two small eels in it. The trout, to my grief, 

 soon died, but the eels survived ; but on my 

 visiting the glass the next morning I found both 

 of them gone. I searched the floor, and at last 

 found one under a sofa, and the other coiled 

 like a veritable snake under a table ! I replaced 

 them in the jar, but they soon died. Now what 

 there is to note in this is that the glass, the only 

 substitute I could obtain for an aquarium, was twelve 

 inches high, six inches in diameter at top, the top 

 rather incurving. I had not filled it more than 

 seven inches with water, thus leaving five inches 

 to the top empty, and yet the eels escaped. As 

 the glass was incurved, they must have literally 

 sprung out, no climbing was possible. The same 

 little stream, when refilled, I fished with a pond net, 

 but have only obtained some curious caddises of a 

 different sort than I ever took before, their cases 

 resembled Tunbridge ware boxes, inlaid with small 

 pieces of wood, straw, etc., but quite smooth. 

 There were also sand caddises, their whole case 

 composed of same matei-ial. On the Avon I have 

 taken several curious insects that run on the top of 

 the water. Three of these lived on the top of the 

 water in a wine-cooler for six weeks or more. 

 They are the size of a large flea, though one was 

 bigger than the other, a black shining oval body, 

 with four legs, and two antenna;. What they fed 

 on must have been invisible to the naked eye I 

 had nothing in the glass but a piece of brown river- 



moss unknown before to me, and three diminutive 

 snails, Succinea putiis. I am well accustomed to 

 water-spiders and their provisioning, but these 

 creatures remained on the water surface, never 

 descending, though if soused with water they 

 instantly ascended to the surface. 



The first few weeks here I took many butterflies 

 and some moths. Amongst the latter is a trans- 

 parent yellow moth with red spots, unknown before 

 to me. The continuous rain latterly has spoilt 

 entomological pursuits, and caterpillars seem very 

 rare, probably from wet weather. The only things 

 the rain has suited are mushrooms, perfect erup- 

 tions of them in the fields a week or so ago, but 

 just now none, probably from the ground being 

 thoroughly chilled and no hot sunshine to evolve 

 growth. Early in July I was at Totnes, and 

 witnessed a most curious sight. At a sharp 

 curve of the River Dart is a very steep rounded 

 weir ; up this the salmon-trout were wriggling by 

 hundreds. With a desperate leap from the pool 

 below they commenced their upward journey, but 

 such was the steepness of the weir that unless they 

 kept their noses quite straight in the wriggling 

 process, the pouring stream sent them back, and 

 their shimmering bodies flashed downwards again 

 into the pool below, to wait and rest till another 

 desperate effort could be made to ascend to the 

 higher waters. They were as if demented to get 

 upward, taking no heed of the alluring flies of 

 three fishermen all angling in the pool ; against the 

 actual legs of one, several fish I saw, in falling back, 

 struck, as he stood below the weir, on the stones, a 

 sore temptation to pick them up. They were 

 making their way to the upper stream in order to 

 spawn. How they avoided being killed by their 

 efforts was remarkable, especially when one reflects 

 that a sharp tap on the nose with a small stick 

 instantly kills them, as I witnessed afterwards, 

 when the seine net was drawn one hundred yards 

 lower than the weir, full of fine salmon and salmon- 

 trout, and the fishermen dispatched the fish in this 

 manner. I bought one of the smallest caught, 

 which weighed three pounds and a half. 



This place is a paradise for ferns, out of every 

 crevice in the rocks and walls peep Asplenium 

 tricomanes, A . adiantum-nigrum, and the hart's-tongue, 

 lady-fern, marsh-fern, mountain- and male-shield- 

 ferns vie with each other to adorn the lanes. 

 Under a mountain rill of water I found growing, 

 the other day, mingled with moss, Hymcnophyllum 

 wilsoni, one of the filmy ferns. 

 August, 1895. 



