SCIEXCE-GOSSIP. 



73 



NOTES OF A HOME NATURALIST. 



By Mrs. Emily 



T N the third week in March, I was dipping my 

 net in the old fish stew at Shiplake Court, and 

 landed six toads, all clasped together, their arms 

 round one another's necks and bodies in a most 

 fraternal embrace. I placed them on the grass 

 bank, and they appeared to be perfectly torpid ; 

 after a while they lazily tried opening their eyes, 

 and then re-shut them ; then they gradually 

 loosened their hold of each other and separated, 

 commencing to crawl away. I replaced them in 

 the water and shortly afterwards, in another part 

 of the fish stew, saw a number of toads linked 

 in a similar way, swimming away oi tuasse, like a 

 raft, moving simultaneously their outer hind legs. 

 Query to this is — do toads hibernate thus ? And if 

 so, do they cling together for warmth or protection ? 

 There was no sort of idea of union except a 

 fraternal one, as they appeared to be all of one 

 sex. 



The Batraehospernum weed, mentioned in my 

 article in the July number {ante p. 44), showing a 

 languishing habit when left alone in a little glass 

 jar, despite of fresh water, I replaced some duck- 

 weed and nitella with it, when it immediately 

 resumed its pristine colour and healthy appearance. 

 The question suggests itself whether it derives 

 oxygen or any life-giving principle from other 

 weeds. Since the great heat in June, it has 

 languished, and now (July 2nd), was thrown away, 

 as no longer worth keeping. 



In March, I caught some curious worms, very 

 thin, about an inch long, white colour, semi-trans- 

 parent ; these, when at rest, anchored themselves 

 to the weed in a circle. On looking closely at 

 them, one perceived they, though apparently 

 cylindrical, had sides in the form of an octagon. 



A swallow was seen and the cuckoo heard here 

 on April 19th. On April 29th, a larva of the 

 dragonfly Libellula depressa, I had in a bottle, cast 

 its skin entirely, and when I placed the skin on a 

 card, it was quite perfect but for one leg, which 

 the larva had apparently swallowed. On April 27th, 

 my husband, a friend and myself were watching 

 some fish in a large aquarium, when we perceived a 

 minnow swimming frantically round, attacked by 

 w^hat I described as a "barley-sugar animal," on 

 page 44 of July number of this paper. The creature 

 was plainly biting the minnow, and was firmly 

 fixed on its back like a loop. Taking a spoon, I 

 took out the fish, removed the enemy, and placed 

 both in separate vessels ; the fish recovered, the 

 mysterious enemy lived, too, for a while. These 

 barred leeches (if they are such) only live if the 

 water is constantly changed. They are for ever on 



J. Clime.nson. 



the watch, seeking something, though they are so 

 cunning that at the least alarm or change of water 

 they will lie round an anacharsis leaf till one 

 imagines they are lost. 



I should be so glad if some fellow naturalist 

 would tell me of a good book on worms and 

 leeches, also one on mites. The variety of these 

 latter is great here. I may mention that we have 

 several red ones, one indented like a mattress, 

 another plain-scarlet with hard scutellum, a similar 

 one deep crimson, one brown with yellow spots, 

 and one black with similar spots. 



The ditches now have many I'elia currens in 

 them. A most beautiful Corrixa I have lately caught 

 occasionally has red eyes, a green chrysoprase 

 coloured head, a green body with two stripes of 

 brown edging, wing cases, and barred across with 

 brown stripes. Also the very curious little whirli- 

 gig beetle (Gyrimis), about five lines long, wedge- 

 shaped, and like a piece of quicksilver all over. 



I bought a pair of Hydrophilus plans beetles from 

 Mr. R. Green, of Covent Garden, on May 30th ; they 

 feed on anacharsis and watercress, varied with a 

 few ants'-eggs. With regard to aquaria, I find 

 them much more difl&cult to keep in health and 

 clearness in the hot weather than in the winter and 

 spring, despite of shade and numerous Planorbis 

 and other molluscs, the water is apt to get rapidly 

 turgid and green. My old Dyticus beetle, caught 

 September 27th, 1895, is healthy and will be 

 restored to the ditches before his mistress departs 

 for a summer holiday. Nothing comes amiss to his 

 voracious maw, from beef, mutton, fish, tadpoles, 

 down to an occasional water-snail or ant-egg. 



The greater mullein flourishes profusely here, 

 rearing its handsome yellow spikes of flowers in 

 the chalk slopes above the river. These have been 

 covered with caterpillars of CucuUia lychnitis this 

 season. I have fed some dozen or so in my 

 insectarium, and a few turned to pupas ; but to my 

 disgust, some insect has devoured the majority of 

 them. I suspect earwigs to be the murderers, as 

 several have been caught in the insectarium 



On the high road to the station here, I saw a 

 nest of the nest-building bee {Bombus musccruni), it 

 consisted of a ball of moss under a few bents of 

 dry hay ; on lifting the moss with a stick, a com- 

 plete nest of moss was revealed, in which arose a 

 dome-shaped yellow cone, presumably the eggs : in 

 the moss by this structure were two small black 

 bees, who, surprised at such an intrusion on their 

 domesticity, did not attempt to fly out, but 

 exhibited an abject attitude of fear. 



Shiplake J'tcnrage, Oxer.. 



