SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



25 



Foraminifera in - London Clav. — Could any of 

 the readers of Science-Gossip inform me whether 

 foraminifera or diatoms have been found in the 

 London clay now being taken out of the tunnel of 

 the Central London Railway. I have found only 

 crystals. I find they are plentiful under Piccadilly. 

 — .-! Henley, 303, Strand, London, W.C. 



Bird-Song in Durham. — There is a remarkable 

 absence of bird-song this season in our part of 

 Durham. The birds, especially song-thrushes and 

 blackbirds, are almost absent in Twizell Dean and 

 in Pit-Hill Plantation, where they used to be 

 common enough. This seems to be the result of 

 the ruthless killing off of everything alive in our 

 district.— John Rowell, Twizell Colliery Durham. 

 [The absence of these birds is e%idently local, 

 because we never remember more wild birds than 

 are now to be seen in almost every part of this 

 country. -Ed. Science-Gossip/ 



Orchidace.e in Surrey. — During a ramble on 

 the chalk hills, south of Horsley, in Surrey, on the 

 23rd May, a small party, including several field- 

 botanist, found the following orchidaceous plants 

 just coming into flower: green-winged meadow- 

 orchis (Orchis morio), early purple orchis (0. 

 mascula), spotted-palmate orchis (O. maculata), 

 great-butterfly orchis (Habenaria chlorantha), bee 

 orchis (Ophrys aj-ifera), green-man orchis (Auras 

 anthropophora), birds-nest orchis (Neottia nidus- 

 i.vay-blade (Lislera ovala), and heleborine 

 \Cephalanthera grandijlora). The season could not 

 be described as at all forward, although some 

 spring plants were well over their flowering stage, 

 while others, which usually appear about the same 

 time, were still in full bloom. 



New Fellows of the Royal Society. — The 

 following nave been selected by the Council for 

 election : Robert Bell, M.D., B.Sc, LL.D., 

 .-.1 Director of Geological Survey of Canada; 

 m Hv Broadbent, F R.C.P., Physician to 

 H R H the Prince of Wales; Chas. Chree, J I Sc, 

 superintendent of Kew Observatory ; Hy. 

 John Elwes. F.L.S., F.Z.S., President of the 

 Entomological Society in 1893-4, ar >d Ornithologist ; 

 John Scott Haldane, M.D., lecturer in Physiology, 

 m \. Haswell, MA., D.Sc, Vice- 

 President of I.innean Society of New South Wales; 

 Georg< res, 1 L.S., Assistant Professor 



I ollege of Soience, London ; 

 F Stanley Kippil r in Chemical Depart- 



ment of City and Guilds of London Institute 

 Ballard Mathews, Profe or of Mathematii 

 University I 



Robert Milni I. Depart- 



ment 1 I ancis I fenry 



Neville turer in Natural Science, 



College HA: ■ . M 1 1 . 1 



Natural fi 



. 



\MMtant I 

 DnMir, Herbert Hall 1 



lety 



Foster-parents of Cuckoo. — I have just 

 received information from Dr. E. Rey, of Leipzic, 

 that another foster-parent of the cuckoo has been 

 discovered. He says, on May 14th, 1S95, in 

 Lebuja, Sevilla, Spain, a nest of Cyanopica cooki 

 (the azure-winged magpie) was taken containing 

 five eggs, with one of Cumins canorus (cuckoo). 

 Eggs of the great spotted cuckoo have on various 

 occasions been found in nests of this species. 

 This addition to my list published in the " Trans- 

 actions " of the North Staffordshire Field Club, 

 1S96, brings the number of recorded foster-parents 

 of the cuckoo to 146. — W. Wells Bladen, Stone, 

 Staffs; April 24th, 1897. 



Abnormal Primrose. — I enclose a sketch of an 

 abnormal form of Primula veiis, which I have not 

 noticed before. The plant from which the flower 

 was taken is growing in a garden at Desborough, 

 Northamptonshire. It was brought last year out 

 of one of the neighbouring fields, and there was, 

 apparently, nothing unusual in the form of the 

 flowers, but this year they show a decided tendency 

 to sport in the direction of the specimen shown, 

 though some of the flowers are normal. It will 

 be seen that the petals are surrounded by a whorl 

 of five leaves, which reproduce the form of the 

 normal leaves, but are much reduced in size; the 

 calyx is wanting. In the specimen figured there 

 were only three stamens, and the form of the 

 stigma was flat and leaf-like. I shall be glad to 

 know whether any of your readers have observed a 

 similar form. — G. Cresivell Turner, Parkhirst, Upper 

 New Walk, Leicester ; April 24th, 1S97. 



Varieties of British Butterflies. — It may 

 be well to call attention to the varietal nomencla- 

 ture in Mr. Tutt's recent work, " British Butter- 

 flies." Although Mr. Tutt's knowledge of the 

 literature of his subject is admittedly great, he has, 

 on this occasion, re-named several varieties (or 

 mutations) and omitted several others. Ccenonympha 

 pamphilus ab. pallida, Tutt, seems to be the 

 albescens of Robson and Gardner, 18S5. Polygouia 

 c-album ab. pallida, Tutt, appears to be hutchinsoni, 

 as has been pointed out elsewhere. Polyommatus 

 corydon ab. minor, Tutt (as new) is minor, Ckll., 

 Entom., July, 18S9. Colias edusa ab. obsoleta, Tutt, 

 is pseudomas, Ckll., Entom., February, 18S9. 

 Colias hyale ab. pallida, Tutt, is not the form pallida, 

 Robson and Gardner, 1S85, so it will need to be 

 re-named. It may be as well to remark that the 

 " very probable explanation " on p. 235, respecting 

 Pieris protodica and P. rupee in America, is a pure 

 product of someone's fertile imagination ; the two 

 insects are entirely different, and are placed by 

 Scudder in different genera. — T. D. A. Cockerel!, 

 Mesilla, New Mexico, U.S.A.; April, 1897, 



Manganese Deposits. — Last summer I came 



across a bed of impure manganese oxide in a gravel 



deposit at Harpenden, exactly similar to that 



described by Dr. Lones at Watford (Science- 



I I . vol. iii , p. 322). This is some miles to 



iih of the area he mentions I was rather 



puzzled as to its origin, and was glad to see the 



suggestion made in the paper The object of this 



to ask It Lones whether the Btratified 



gravel at Harpenden, which now forms the floor 



of the dry valley running nearly due soul 1 1 through 



iIk- village, and seenp. to merge int.. the more 



..n •• No Man's Land " near si 



Albans, bad a similar origin to his Watford gra< 1 Is? 



I have generally considered thai il"' formei ra 



formH '■ thi 1 latioi 1 1 lei 1i.11 \ beds, and 



rivet nich once flowed dow a 



