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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — Science-Gossip 

 is published on the 25th of each month. All notes or other 

 communications should reach us not later than the 18th of 

 the month for insertion in the following number. No com- 

 munications can be inserted or noticed without full name 

 and address of writer. Exchanges extending to thirty words 

 (including name and address) admitted free, but additional 

 words must be prepaid at the rate of threepence for every 

 seven words or less. 



Notice. — Contributors are requested to strictly observe the 

 following rules. All contributions must be clearly written 

 on one side of the paper only. Words intended to be 

 printed in italics should be marked under with a single line. 

 Generic names must be given in full, excepting where used 

 immediately before . Capitals may only be used for generic, 

 and not specific names. Scientific names and names of 

 places to be written in round hand. 



The Editors are not responsible for unused MSS., neither 

 can they undertake to return them, unless accompanied with 

 stamps for return postage. 



Subscriptions. — Subscriptions to Science-Gossip, at the 

 rate of 5s. for twelve months (including postage), may com- 

 mence at any time. 



The Editors will be pleased to answer questions and name 

 specimens through the Correspondence column of the maga- 

 zine. Specimens, in good condition, of not more than three 

 species to be sent at one time, carriage paid. Duplicates 

 only to be sent, which will not be returned. The specimens 

 must have identifying numbers attached, together with 

 locality, date and particulars of capture. 



All communications, remittances of subscriptions, books 

 or instruments for review, specimens for identification, etc., 

 are to be addressed to John T. Carrington, i, Northumber- 

 land Avenue, London, W.C. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



C. Parkinson. Kindly send us your address. Each of 

 your communications has been entirely wanting in this 

 respect. 



John Collins (Birmingham). It is impossible to name 

 specimens of mosses and hepatics unless they are in fruit. 

 Neither of those you sent were fruiting. 



James Murray (Whitehaven). Your mosses are (1) Milium 

 punctatum, (2 and 3) Polytrichum piliferum, (4) Tortula 

 nmralis. Get Hobkirk's " Synopsis of British Mosses." 



J. R. Holt (Dublin). The squeak of Acherontia atropos is 

 very distinct and sharp in tone ; it is caused by stridulation. 

 There were some interesting communications made to the 

 Entomological Society and to the entomological magazines, a 

 few years ago, upon stridulating insects in general, when 

 many species of several orders were referred to. 



F. Hildyard (London, E.C.). You would hardly expect to 

 get such a book as Butschli's " Microscopic Foams " at Mudie's ; 

 it is probable that not one in five thousand of their subscribers 

 would ask for it. The best circulating library for scholarly 

 works in all departments of literature is the London Library, 

 St. James' Square, S.W. For natural history in all branches 

 there is no library like that of the Zoological Society, 

 3, Hanover Square, W. 



Walter Crosbie (New Barnet). Your plant from Eccles- 

 bourne Glen was sent to us in the most unsatisfactory 

 manner possible. If you wished to puzzle us you could not 

 do much better than to send a thin-textured plant without 

 packing in a chip match-box ; when it reached us it was 

 perfectly unrecognisable. However, by much soaking and 

 careful manipulation we have unravelled it sufficiently to 

 identify it as Chrysosplenium oppositi/oluun, L., or Common 

 Golden Saxifrage. 



Arthur J. Hulatt (Bedford). Your specimens are of 

 Podttra aquatica, a species of Collembola, or Spring-tails. 

 The forked appendage on the abdomen which has puzzled you 

 is characteristic of the group, and gives these insects their 

 popular name. Several allied species may be found swarm- 

 ing on the water, or lurking under stones, and generally in 

 moist places. They are insects that ordinary entomologists 

 utterly neglect ; but you will find much information concern- 

 ing them in Sir John Lubbock's " Monograph of the 

 Collembola and Thysanura," issued by the Ray Society. 



S. M. McGregor (Perth). — 1. The best box for relaxing 

 dried insects is one of tin, with closely-fitting lid ; it should 

 have a couple of shelves of perforated zinc ; on these place 

 loose covers of felt about \ to J-inch thick, these should be 

 well damped, but not left wet, with water to which has been 

 added a few drops of carbolic acid to kill mould. Place the 

 specimens on the felt, close the box and put it near a fire or 

 in other warm situation for twelve or sixteen hours. " Sand 

 boxes " are very unsatisfactory. 2. Kill your aculeate-hyme- 

 noptera with fumes of strong ammonia (Sp. g. 880), they will 

 then be quite flaccid and easily set out when dead. 



EXCHANGES. 



Micro, slides, chiefly diatoms, for exchange. — E. A. 

 Hutton, Broadbottom, near Manchester. 



Wanted, Helix lapicida. Offered, Trochus cinereus.— 

 W. Jones, jun., 27, Mayton Street, London, N. 



Wanted, ova of foreign butterflies for rearing. Offered, 

 British butterflies and moths in papers. — W. Harcourt Bath, 

 195, Ladywood Road, Birmingham. 



Wanted, first four volumes of " Nature Notes," must be 

 complete and in perfect condition. — Offers to Robert F. 

 McConnell, Thistlebank, Dumbarton. 



Offers wanted for a collection of minerals, containing 

 several hundred good specimens, mostly named. — T. C. 

 Maggs, 56, Clarendon Villas, West Brighton. 



Pritchard's " Infusoria," including Desmids and Diatoms, 

 1861 ; brass table and spirit lamp for micro.-mounting. 

 Offers requested. — C. L. Lord, Fernbank, Sligo. 



Living or spirit specimens of Testacella scutulum offered 

 for Testacella haliotidea or Geomalacus maculosus. — W. Hy. 

 Heathcote, M.C.S., 54, Frenchwood Street, Preston. 



British land, freshwater and marine shells, also some 

 foreign, in exchange for shells not in collection ; offers. 

 Lists sent. — Mrs. Oldroyd, 82, Abbey Street, Faversham. 



Will exchange photographs of geological sections (prints, 

 enlargements, or lantern transparencies) for rocks, minerals, 

 or fossils, not already in my collection. — Henry Preston, 

 Grantham. 



Chemicals and apparatus, bought for Civil Service exam., 

 but unused ; cost £8. What cash offers, or would exchange 

 for safety or tricycle. — A. Hewitt, 54, Umfreville Road, 

 Harringay, N. 



Duplicate eggs of plover, waterhens, pheasants, crows, 

 jays, shag, buntings, warblers, tits, crested wren, bullfinches, 

 pipits, etc., to exchange for others. — R. J. Waller, 4, Pier 

 Terrace, Lowestoft. 



Wanted, unmounted palates of Mollusca, in exchange for 

 Mantell's " Invisible World Revealed by the Microscope ; or, 

 Thoughts on Animalcula." — John Radcliff, in, Oxford 

 Street, Ashton-under-L; ne. 



Will exchange good botanical micro, slides for complete 

 vols, of Science-Gossip for 1865-8-9, 1870-1-2-5 or 7 ; or for 

 interesting Natural History specimens. — John Collins, 201, 

 Green Lane, Birmingham. 



Offered, H. hortensis, vars. albina, lilacina and arenicola, 

 H. nemoralis, var. rubella, CI. rolphii, B. leachii. Wanted, 

 H. obvoluta, L. burnetti. — Arthur S. Poore, Seivour Cottage, 

 Abbey Road, Belvedere, Kent. 



Minerals, including many finely crystallized, in exchange 

 for foreign stamps ; Dana's '' System of Mineralogy," 1888, 

 equal to new. What offers ? — A. E. Fasnacht, 2g6, Ashton 

 New Road, Clayton, Manchester. 



Wanted, living Helix pomatia, Testacella and Geomalacus, 

 living or in spirit, Helix laminata, H. fusca, Cochlicopa 

 tridens and Vertigos. Offered, other British and foreign 

 shells.— W. A. Gain, Tuxford, Newark. 



Offered, H. obvoluta, L. burnetti, L. involuta, V. pusilla, 

 V. substriata, V. angustior. Wanted, V. moulinsiana, V. 

 tumida, H. Pomatia var. albida, B. obscurus var. alba, B. 

 montanus var. alba, and several Helices var. albida. — W. 

 Sutton, Blezard's Hotel, Ingleton, Yorkshire. 



Wanted, specimens, shewing catkins, g and ? , of L. C, 

 Ed. 8, Nos. 1271-9 and 1311-4 inclusive ; fresh specimens or, 

 if dried, of this year's growth preferred. — T. A. Dymes, 16, 

 Lancaster Road, Kensington Park, W. 



Entomological specimens (of any order) would be grate- 

 fully received from anyone having duplicates with no use 

 for them; box sent (prepaid) and return postage. — J. 

 Fleming, 4, Gayfield Square, Edinburgh. 



Cuckoo eggs wanted, with clutches of foster parents, 

 especially reed warbler, garden warbler, redstart, wren, 

 nightingale, marsh warbler; good eggs in exchange. — W. 

 Wells Bladen, Stone, Staffordshire. 



First-class pathological and anatomical micro, slides 

 offered in exchange for Sunlight soap wrappers, etc. ; 12 

 slides for 100 wrappers ; will send on approval.— Edgar 

 Piffard, Hill House, Hemel Hempstead. 



Rare British shells— Fusus norvegicus, F. turtonaa, F. 

 islandicus, Buccinum pelagica, Isocardia cor, Xylophaga 

 dorsalis, Modiolaria nigra, Solen pellucidus, Scalaria 

 turtonae ; offers. — A. Sclater, 43, Northumberland Place, 

 Teignmouth. 



Offered, Science-Gossip, 1885-6; "British Coleoptera," 

 Stephens; Davis on '-Mounting;" turntable. Wanted, 

 other vols, of Science-Gossip, scientific books, diatom 

 slides, land and freshwater shells, etc.— J. C. Blackshaw, 158, 

 Penn Road, Wolverhampton. 



" Microscopic Journal," 1841 ; Lindley's " Introduction 

 to Botany"; "Magazine of Zoology and Botany," Vol. II.; 

 " Entozoa," with supplement, Cobbold ; "Animal Intel- 

 ligence," Romanes ; " Mantell's " Invisible World " ; 

 Houghton's "Sketches of British Insects"; "Common 

 Objects, Seashore " (col. plates), Wood; Beale's " Microscope 

 in Medicine " ; " Anatomy and Physiology of Nematoids,'" 

 Bastian; Science-Gossip, 1870. What offers? — Charles 

 Wright, 9, Farcliffe Place, Bradford. 



