June 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



135 



ZOOLOGY. 



The House Spahkow in India.— The house 

 sparrow is more widely distributed than any species 

 found in Hiudostan ; it is found all over India, and 

 northward even on the steppes of Chinese Tartary. 

 In every village and town of Hindostan it swarms in 

 countless thousands, and is the same dirty, noisome 

 bird as we find in the streets of Loudon. During 

 summer evenings, in Cashmere, they assemble in 

 vast flocks on the chunar trees, accompanied by 

 myriads of jackdaws and maina birds {Acridotheres 

 tristii) ; their rough calls, mixed with the chirpings 

 of the sparrows, are anything but pleasant. In the 

 wild and barren Ladakh, the sparrow lives and dies 

 under the roofs of the rude inhabitants of that 

 desolate and dreary land. I recollect, when travel- 

 ling in that country, we came to an assemblage of 

 Tartar huts, after a long and fatiguing march of 

 twenty miles. Not a symptom of animated nature 

 was visible ; long we waited at the doorway of a 

 miserable Uttle hut ; but no natives made their 

 appearance. At last a chirp was heard, and a 

 sparrow flew out of the hovel ; this little fact was 

 convincing, for the sparrow loves man.— "The place 

 is inhabited ; " and so it was. A short time after- 

 wards a flock of goats and sheep were seen winding 

 down the glen, and we were soon surrounded by 

 crowds of wondering Tartars. — A. L. Adams, M.B. 



TiiE Song o? the WATER-DiprEH. — As I have 

 been fishing during the afternoons of several days 

 lately, I have had a very agreeable companion in a 

 water-dipper {Cinclus aqtiaticiis), which I find daily 

 in the same locality, and very frequently on the same 

 stone. The song of this bird struck me as being 

 peculiarly sweet and harmonious, and as having a 

 bubbling, pipe-like sound. It is low, but very dis- 

 tinct, and can easily be heard above the babble and 

 roar of the shallows. I heard it singing in October 

 last, and, for the first time this year, in the middle 

 of March. Its spring song, in my estimation, is as 

 yet inferior to its autumn, thus reversing the general 

 rule. This may be merely owing to my hearing the 

 bird recording, rather than in full song. There is a 

 peculiar beauty in the posture of the bird, as he 

 leans forward, singing and jerking his tail, and then 

 stopping for an instant to plume himself, somewhat 

 in the manner of water-birds in general. — B. Bl. 



A Badgee, and five young ones, about five weeks 

 old (apparently), were presented, about the third 

 week in February, to the Clifton Zoological Gardens. 

 The young ones all died ; the mother looked very 

 ill.— /. ^. A^ 



EiNG Ousel. — The Welsh mountains appear to 

 be the head-quarters in Britain of this bird. It is 

 not uncommon to see three or four pairs during a 

 morning's walk. — J/. C. C. 



BuKiED Alive.— In the spring of 1863, 1 was in 

 want of a few eggs of the martin {Eirundo tirhica), 

 and while examining a number of then- nests I came 

 upon one, the hole of which had apparently been 

 plastered up with the same material as the nest was 

 composed of. The well-known anecdote of the 

 sparrow, who, taking possession of a martin's nest 

 and refusing to evacuate, was plastered up by the 

 martins and left to perish, at once occurred to me ; 

 and I expected to find the remains of some poor 

 sparrow in the nest ; but on taking it down I was 

 much surprised to find the dried remains of a com- 

 mon wren {Troglodytes Europaus), aud three or four 

 martin's eggs. What can have been the motive of 

 the wren in going there I cannot imagine ; perhaps 

 some of your readers can enlighten me on the sub- 

 ject. — /. A. H. 



Octopus. — In the Levant, among the Greek 

 islands, this creature, called " Octopodia " (eight 

 legs) by the fishermen, assumes large proportions, 

 and is exceedingly troublesome to them when alive, 

 but is much esteemed when dead as an article of 

 consumption. Boiled, and afterwards pickled in 

 vinegar, or stewed, it is really very palatable, 

 as I can vouch ; yet had mine been the task 

 of preparing them, perhaps I should never have 

 been enabled to give an opinion, as the modus 

 opera7idi is to beat them severely for an hour or 

 so against the nearest large stone until all their 

 sliminess exudes and leaves them fit for market. — ■ 

 A. M. B. 



Very like a Shrimp.— Preserve me from the 

 distilled prattle of the conscientious quack who 

 grinds up facts out of a printed book, and then re- 

 peats them at haphazard, because he thinks educated 

 society expects some acquaintance with the phrase- 

 ology of science. Protect me from him, I should 

 only put him out ; let him enjoy himself in his own 

 way, I in mine, out of shot. Perhaps, while I am 

 peopling a flat valley with ancient monsters, smacking 

 the slime with their great tails, gobbling, sleeping, 

 snorting, fighting — while I hear tlie shriek and the 

 rustle of strange birds in the air, but see the same 

 blessed sun above our heads, the same harvest moon, 

 though rising on the unreaped earth — while I am 

 thus out of date, or may be picturing to myself the 

 naked battle around the barrows on the windy downs, 

 my friend with the book shouts to me that he thinks 

 he has found a Coleojoternm ridiculosur,i in the shin- 

 gle. Will I come and see? And the inspected 

 beast bounds off his open palm with an elastic 

 " spang," very like a shrimp, as I tell him,— and is 

 gone past verification; "is probably at the moment 

 hastily shoving himself, at great risk of bruises, 

 deep down among his native stones. But my friend 

 says, contemptuously, that it cannot be a shrimp — 

 because shrimps are x&di.— Jones's Holiday Papers. 



