i8 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTES OF A HOME NATURALIST. 



By Mrs. Emily J. Climenson. 



'"pHESE dreadful cold winds are now retarding 

 what promised to be a very forward summer. 

 By April 8th a nest of young robins in our garden 

 were flown. Two swallows were seen flying out of 

 our cowhouse, where there is an annual nest, on 

 April nth. A cuckoo was heard, first at Shiplake 

 on April 14th, and a nightingale the same night. 

 April 27th a wryneck was heard, and on the 30th a 

 corncrake. Swifts were observed on May 7th. 

 On April 8th I was told of an owl that the 

 gardeners had observed for some three weeks or 

 more sitting in the top of a cedar-tree on a terrace 

 below the house. It was a large wood-owl, and 

 with the exception of a day or two the owl sat in the 

 same tree, on the same branch, for about a month, 

 when it disappeared. The cedar-tree is not twenty 

 yards from the house. As there are five other 

 splendid cedars in our garden, some further from 

 the house, it was singular its choosing this par- 

 ticular one. According to the wind, it sat with its 

 face turned one way or another, motionless the 

 whole day, though at night it was occasionally 

 heard making a loud hooting. Barn-owls breed 

 freely in the chalk pit hard by our garden, but I 

 fancy a wood -owl perching so near the house is 

 rather remarkable. 



In a glass jar in the drawing-room window I had 

 a black larva that was quite different from most 

 Ephemeridae I have kept. It had a broad, black 

 head, two setae at tail instead of three. The 

 branchial organs were like exquisite feathers, 

 which it continually waved. It could swim rapidly 

 about the jar. Sometimes it lay in the little layer 

 of mud at the bottom, sometimes clung to the 

 Anacharis weed. On March 28th, on looking for 

 it, I missed my larva, but instead, on the rim of the 

 vessel, was a beautiful, clear-winged, black insect, 

 with two small wings and two much larger ones, two 

 long setae as before, minus the claspers which the 

 larva had. It remained on the jar drying its gauze- 

 like wings for two days, and then disappeared- 

 Can anyone tell me what it was ? Mr. Bateman, 

 in his book of aquaria, mentions the genus Baetis 

 having only two setae, but the feather-like branchiae 

 are not mentioned, which were totally different 

 from any I have had before. Since this I have 

 had another larva like it, except having three setae 

 unfortunately, for some unexplained cause, it died. 

 In a jar containing a dip from a ditch a perfect 

 eruption of Hydra viridis took place on April 28th ; 

 they were literally in hundreds. I have never 

 found them before ; only possessed those my 

 correspondent, Mr. Nicholson, kindly sent to me. 



As I had had the dip for some days without 

 perceiving any, they must have been suddenly 

 born. In the same odd way a fine Hydra fusca, 



on April 25th, suddenly appeared on a watercress 

 plant, which had been in a jar for a month or 

 more. In the middle of February, Mr. F. O. 

 Warner, our parish schoolmaster, brought me, in 

 a small box, a piece of what he called "animated 

 cotton." It turned out to be a thread-worm 

 (Gordius), looking exactly like a piece of Coates' 

 No. 40 white cotton, about four inches long 

 when stretched out, but writhing and twisting 

 itself into veritable gordian knots, lifting a snake- 

 like head, which tapered to a point. I kept it alive 

 for a few days, damping the earth slightly in which 

 it lay, but it died curved into quite an ornamental 

 twist. The colour turned from white to a pale 

 yellow, it was perfectly hard and resembled a 

 piece of twisted vermicelli. I could only see an 

 opaque mass through my microscope, and not 

 having a live-trough, or box, I had not tried to 

 look at it alive. Mr. Warner had found some a 

 year or so before, when digging. 



In a wood some three miles from here, on March 

 26th, I found an uncommon plant Chrysosplenium 

 altemifolium, or alternate golden-saxifrage ; of 

 course not in flower, only in leaf. As early as the 

 first week in March, a lime hawk-moth (Smerinthus 

 tittis) was found emerged from a glass frame, and 

 a second in third week of that month. I omitted 

 in my April Notes in Science-Gossip, to mention 

 that the rooks which daily go to the school-house 

 for food come from the rookery some quarter of a 

 mile off; also at the sound of the school bell at two 

 o'clock, in order to search the playground for 

 scraps dropped by the children from their dinner 

 pieces ; as well as attending the schoolmaster's 

 meals. They must understand the sound of the 

 bell, as their nests are out of sight of the school 

 house. 



Shiplake Vicarage, Oxon.; May 13W1, 1897. 



British Association. — The preparations for the 

 meeting to be held next autumn, at Toronto, in 

 Canada, are already progressing rapidly, and 

 a hearty welcome is to be offered to the members 

 who attend. Every grade of society in Canada 

 will offer assistance. The Governor- General and 

 Lady Aberdeen are to give a reception in the fine 

 Legislative Buildings in Toronto, which cannot fail 

 to be a success, when we remember the courtesy 

 and kindness which characterize their Excellencies 

 on such occasions. It seems probable that the 

 English visitors may be outnumbered by our 

 American cousins from south of the border-line. 

 Several of the U.S. Universities will officially send 

 delegates, and the Botanical and Geological 

 Societies of America are to meet in Toronto just 

 before the great assembly for the British Associa- 

 tion, so that their members may attend the latter 

 gathering. Public banquets are to be given to 

 Lords Kelvin and Lister and to the President-elect, 

 Sir John Evans. The railway companies have 

 arranged for long and short excursions at 

 remarkably low rates. Indeed, the 1897 meeting 

 promises to be a brilliant success 



