112 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1;1865. 



in a doctor immediately; but already the malady had 

 made such progress, that iu spite of the most 

 energetic means employed the patient soon died. — 

 Fetit Journal, IWi March. 



Thrush and Ebog.— R. H., in p. 85, says he can 

 see no reason why, on the principle that similia 

 similihis curantur, a frog should be sought as a 

 remedy for the childish disorder which is commonly 

 known as the thnish. In this part of the country the 

 disorder is sometimes called " the frog." — Hiimber. 



Rosy Eeather-Stab. — W. W. S., iu his in- 

 teresting account of the larva of the Comatula, as 

 observed by him near St. Malo, asks "if this form 

 of the feather-star has been found on the English 

 coast ? " I have no doubt that Dr. Carpenter has 

 had the satisfaction of procuring specimens of this 

 form of the Comatula since he discovered a habitat 

 for tlie perfect animal in the Bay of Lamlash, off 

 the Isle of Arran. Several years since, during a 

 tour in the west of Scotland, I was busily engaged 

 dredging iu Lamlash Bay, and frequently I was 

 delighted to find this beautiful star-fish among the 

 numerpus " treasures of the deep " which we hauled 

 into the boat, and I fondly imagined, at the time, 

 that I had been the fortunate discoverer of this very 

 rare star-fish, little knowing that Dr. Carpenter was 

 before me. One of my specimens was unusually 

 large, being several inches in diameter-, and of a fine 

 dark red colour. Being very anxious to preserve 

 him, it occurred to me that I would mount him as a 

 sea-weed, on paper, well knowing that any attempt 

 to dry the creature, out of his native element, would 

 end in disappointment ; so, having cautiously placed 

 him iu a deep dish of sea-water, I gently slipped a 

 piece of drawiug-paper under him, and raising my 

 hand quickly out of the water, I had the satisfaction 

 of seeing the extended arms of the comatula fixed to 

 the paper, so securely, that notwithstanding the 

 efforts of the creature to free itself, it was unable to 

 detach any portion of the arms, except a few joints 

 near their connection with the disc-like body of the 

 animal, and this was accomplished only in conse- 

 quence of those portions of the arms being elevated 

 above the surface of the paper. The self-mutilating 

 propensity of these irritable creatures is well known, 

 and I therefore considered myself very fortunate in 

 having secured so much of a genuine specimen of 

 Comatula rosacea. The star-fish is now in the pos- 

 session of my friend Mr. S. liigliley, of Green-street, 

 Leicester-square, who would, doubtless, be happy to 

 show it to any one interested in this class of marine 

 animals. — IF. II. Grattami. 



Otters.— Otters are very plentiful this year in 

 the Terae (a tributary of the Severn), as many as 

 five being seen together. A fricud of mine started 

 one which turned up an opening for a drain ; he • 



followed, and hit it on the head with a spade, and 

 now has it stuffed ; it is a fine specimen of a dog. — 

 M. J. B. 



CouAL Eeefs.— Captain Elinders, in the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, held his coiu'se by the sides of lime- 

 stone reefs, five hundred miles in extent, with a 

 depth irregular and uncertain ; and more recently, 

 Captain King seven hundred miles, almost a con- 

 tinent, of rock, increasing and visibly forming ; all 

 drawn from the waters of the ocean by a minute 

 creature, that wonderful agent in the hands of Pro- 

 vidence — the coral insect. — Knapp's Journal of a 

 Naturalist. 



Deer Poisoned by Yew-leaves. — A number of 

 the deer in the park of the Duke of Beaufort, at 

 Badminton, have been poisoned in a singular manner. 

 There is a large yew-tree in the park, the branches 

 of which are some feet from the ground. The late 

 snow bore down the branches until they were within 

 reach of the deer. The animals nibbled the leaves, 

 and between thirty and forty have died, and a 

 number are still suffering from the effects of the 

 poisonous juice of the leaves. — Herts and Essex 

 Journal. 



Sparrows on the House-top. — At the house of 

 Lady Soame, in Hereford-square, Bromptou, is a 

 Corinthian column reaching to the top, iu the capital 

 of which, as long ago as last spring, a pair of 

 sparrows built their nest. About the time the 

 young birds were hatched Lady Soame had a cage 

 or covering of wire-work placed over the capital, 

 one top of which came just under the nest; and it 

 happened that shortly afterwards two of the young 

 birds fell through. The meshes or openings of the 

 cage were just large enough to admit them, as they 

 then were, but not the old ones ; and as they had 

 not strength, probably, to force their way out as 

 they came in, there they had to remain. The conse- 

 quence was, that in their progress to maturity, they 

 also became too large to pass through their prison- 

 bars ; and there they have remained, imprisoned but 

 alive, from that time to this. The most extraor- 

 dinary part of the story is, that the old birds not 

 only continued to feed the young ones through the 

 wires of the cage while they remained unfledged, 

 but they have done so ever since. They have been 

 seen, from day to day, to bring them food ; indeed, 

 had they not done so, it is plain the young ones 

 could not have been, as they now are, alive, and, to 

 all appearance, well. Could the old Inrds have ma- 

 naged by any means to give them water ? or could 

 the young ones have obtained a supply from the 

 eavesdroppings, or in any other way ? Or can birds 

 really exist without water ? — Edward Morton, in the 

 Field. 



