SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



65 



A New Cysticercus. — Mr. T. B. Rosseter, 

 F.R.M.S., in the " Journal of the Cjuekett Micro- 

 scopical Club," for April, describes a new species 

 of cysticercus discovered by him in the body cavity 

 of Cyclops agilis, at Bekesbourne, near Canterbury, 

 in December, 1892. Careful investigation leads 

 him to the conclusion that it is the cysticercus of 

 a hitherto undiscovered tapeworm, and in order 

 that the latter may be recognised he proposes to 

 call his find by the name of Cysticercus quadricur- 

 vatus, Rosseter. 



New Slides. — We have received from Mr. 

 Ernest Hinton, 12, Vorley Road, Upper Holloway, 

 London, N., three very fine preparations of the 

 pedicellarise of a star-fish (Uraster glacial is). No. 1 

 is a beautiful group, mounted entire, symmetrically 

 and opaque. No. 2 is a similar group, but mounted 

 transparent, an equally beautiful object if ex- 

 amined by polarized light or paraboloid. In No. 3 

 the specimens have more elbow room, and are 

 separated to show the parts in detail. There is 

 considerable interest in these minute appendages 

 which puzzled naturalists for many years. By 

 some they were thought not to be organs of the 

 star-fish, but parasites upon it. Prof. Romanes, 

 however, cleared the matter up satisfactorily, and 

 gave a full description of them in his volume on 

 "Jelly-fish, Star-fish and Sea-urchins," in the 

 "International Scientific Series." He there shows 

 that they are simply aids to locomotion, and that 

 they act by catching hold of seaweed, etc., and 

 retaining it until the umbulacral discs get firm 

 hold. 



Stereoscopic Binoculars. — In his Presidential 

 address to the Quekett Microscopical Club, Mr. 

 E. M. Nelson, F.R.M.S., referred to the serious 

 danger likely to occur to the microscopy of the 

 future, owing to the neglect of viewing opaque 

 objects with a stereoscopic binocular. He said : 

 " Personally, I do not believe that any observer, 

 however eminent, who has not previously passed 

 through the special training of viewing opaque 

 objects with a stereoscopic binocular, can form 

 correct ideas of the shape of objects solely by 

 alterations of focus. This is such an important 

 subject that the necessity for some such training 

 ought to be fairly impressed on every beginner. 

 If you show a fairly large diatom, such as Heliopelta 

 or Aulacodiscus formosus or kittonii, to one only 

 acquainted with the estimation of depth by means 

 of the fine adjustment with a monocular, and if 

 you let him form his own conclusions as to the 

 shape of the object, with which he should not be 

 previously acquainted, and afterwards show him 

 the same object as opaque, with a stereoscopic 

 binocular, he will receive a terrible shock as the 

 truth dawns upon him that, although he has been 

 a microscopist for many years, he has never rightly 

 comprehended the true form of a single object he 

 has ever examined." This is a matter which is 

 worthy of serious consideration by all workers with 

 monocular instruments. 



Transport of Aouatic Animals. — Can any 

 of your readers tell me how dealers import their 

 live fish and reptiles from abroad ? A relative 

 wishes to send me specimens of the Proteus, or 

 blind salamander, from the caves of Adelsberg, and 

 asks for the safest method to send them so that 

 they will reach me in the shortest time alive. — 

 H. J. Barber, Brighousc ; March, 1894. 



Hybrid Sparrows. — Respecting the note on 

 page 44, ante, on a wild hybrid sparrow exhibited 

 at the Linnean Society, and which was then said 

 to be only the second specimen of the kind ever 

 captured, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson writes to say 

 that he has seen three such specimens, and that 

 one he obtained was recorded with a minute 

 description in his little book on " Lakeland," 

 published some years ago. Possibly this was the 

 "one other" capture of the kind to which reference 

 was made at the Linnean Society. 



Bird Notes. — On the evening of the 2nd of this 

 month, a pair of partridges (Perdix cinerea) alighted 

 in the middle of St. George's Street, a principal 

 thoroughfare of Canterbury, and were without 

 difficulty captured. The birds were either frightened 

 by their novel surroundings or had received some 

 previous fright as they did not attempt to make 

 off. A good specimen of the buzzard was recently 

 caught in a trap by the keeper on the Fredville 

 Estate, near Dover. Can any of your readers 

 inform me if it is an unusual occurrence for 

 rooks to breed before they are two years old ? I 

 noted one, building, a few weeks ago, which I took 

 to be a last season's bird, owing to the fact that 

 the feathers at the base of the bill had not entirely 

 disappeared, as is the case after the second moult. 

 Presuming they do not breed before they are nearly 

 two years old (vide Howard Saunder's " British 

 Birds") what became of last year's birds during 

 the nesting season? H. Medd-Briggs, 17, [St. 

 George's Place, Canterbury ; April 12, 1S94. 



Erratic Egg-Laying. — On February 14th last, 

 one of my Dorking fowls, accustomed to lay 

 occasionally very large eggs, and now and then 

 double-yolked ones, laid two eggs at a sitting, both 

 mottled all over with rich red brown, like the fresh 

 hue on a kestrel's egg. One of these was the size 

 of a turtle dove's egg, the other was as small as a 

 house-sparrow's. Both were yolkless. On the 

 17th she laid a large elongated egg with a pro- 

 tuberance at the small end, which evidently repre- 

 sented a second egg, since it had a small yolk of 

 its own. This egg was of the ordinary colour. On 

 the 19th she laid another red-brown egg, the size of 

 a wood-pigeon's, and of a rich brown colour. It 

 was yolkless. The next day she gave us an egg of 

 the ordinary size and colour, but only partially 

 covered with a shell. On the 26th we had another 

 red-brown egg, about the same size as that on the 

 19th, and also without a yolk. This seems to have 

 exhausted her, for she has laid nothing since. — 

 Hy. Ullyett, Folkestone. 



