IGO 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1865. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Eeauless Tits.— The follovving I cut from a 

 Sussex paper about two or three weeks ago, and 

 thought it might be interesting to some of your distant 

 readers. "There is now to be seen between the 

 wall and the door-post of the Swan Inn, Chailey, 

 the nest of a pair of tomtits containing several 

 eggs. The door-post is considerably decayed, and 

 is constantly moving to and fro. Last year a nest 

 was made (it is supposed by these birds) in the 

 same place, when, notwithstanding that on one 

 occasion the door was shut violently, shaking some 

 of the eggs from the nest, the fearless birds returned 

 to their homes and successfully reared their little 

 one." I think tliis is a proof that the tit is one of 

 our most fearless birds. — E. S. 



ViPEES Swallowing their Young. — This ap- 

 pears a vexed question. Whether vipers are in the 

 constant habit of swallowing their young I cannot 

 say; but that they can do so I am quite sure. Some 

 years since I was shooting iu a wood, and came 

 suddenly on a viper lying on a sunny bank. As 

 soon as the viper caught sight of me, it began to hiss, 

 and I distinctly saw several young ones, about three 

 or four inches long, run up to the parent, and vanish 

 down its throat ; and from the way iu which the 

 parent kept its mouth open, and the young ones 

 glided into it, I should say they were accustomed 

 to tliat sort of thing. — //. C. S. 



SxAKE AXD VirEE.— On July ISth last, I was at 

 Sherborne, Dorsetshire. In a wood not far from 

 thence, I was looking for ferns, with a basket and fork 

 to dig them up. As I was going on looking further, 

 I saw in the grass a viper, which suddenly, on see- 

 ing me approach, disappeared. I followed it to the 

 place where it had disappeared, v/hich turned out 

 to be a large hole in the ground, not deep, but wide ; 

 and on insertmg the handle of the fork into this, 

 the creature came out. I immediately seized it 

 behind the neck, and foolishly placed it in the 

 basket, aud took it to our house, which was close 

 by. I then put the basket into a box, and after 

 dinner took out the basket and opened it. The 

 viper Vi&s very sluggish ; but on touching it, 

 and endeavouring to take it by the neck, as I had 

 done before, it struck at me, and bit my left fore- 

 fmger. I immediately threw it down and stamped 

 upon it, and sucked the place, cutting it with a 

 knife, and putting ammonia to it. Meanwhile, my 

 brother went for the doctor, and before he came I 

 began to feel very faint, and inclined to vomit. 

 When he came, he cut two incisions in the finger, 

 aud tied it up at the root, putting it into as hot 

 water as I could bear. He also made me drmk a 

 (iuautity of ammonia aud water, aud then go to bed. 

 The finder was very painful, and bled for a long 



time, and I was very feverish. The next day I got 

 up, but was very weak, aud there was a green mark 

 all up from my finger, which was very large, to my 

 left side, and all up my arm. The mark as far as 

 the side was in a narrow line, but at the side it was 

 in a large blotch. My finger was poulticed, and I had 

 a cushion, dipped in water in which broken poppy- 

 heads had been boiled, placed between my arm and 

 side. The arm was much swelled, aud I soon went 

 to bed again. The next day I got up again, and 

 from thence began rapidly to get well, and in a week 

 had my arm out of a sling and my finger almost well. 

 I was perfectly well by the day fortnight on which 

 the bite occurred. These facts are, I need hardly 

 say, perfectly true, and the more remarkable because 

 olive oil was not used at all. 



Now for the snake. About the 20th of April, I 

 Avas taking a walk some way from Sherborne, ac- 

 companied by my brother, and Avas looking for 

 divers water insects with a water-net. We came to a 

 large pond, in which there Avere several newts ; and 

 my brother, looking into it, exclaimed, "Oh, E— , 

 there is a snake in the pond ! " I looked, and there 

 saw it moving at the bottom. I tried to capture it 

 in the net, but could not ; and my brother shortly 

 afterwards said, " Here, it is coming out." I went 

 softly to the spot to Avhicli he pointed, and Ihere, 

 sure enough, was a snake coming up the steep tank 

 with something iu its mouth. I crouched down on 

 my stomach, aud when the snake's head came to the 

 top of the bank, I caught hold of the neck, and, in 

 spite of its struggles, succeeded in capturing it. I 

 then saw that what it had in its mouth was a largo 

 black newt. I put them both into a tin box which 

 we had with us, and on coming home, opened the 

 box aud found that the newt had disappeared — no 

 doubt having been eaten by the snake. I have the 

 snake alive in my possession at this very moment. — 

 Edwin Arfhur Fuule. 



Dog v. Fox. — A few weeks ago a fox was ob- 

 served by a man standing on Bulkley Hill, in the 

 neighbourhood of Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire, 

 in pursuit of a dog, who was making the best of his 

 way home OA^r the low ground at the foot of the hUl. 

 A short time previously the same dog had been sent 

 into a hole to draw a fox, but did not succeed, the 

 dog getting somcAvhat roughly used, and it is sur- 

 mised the fox may have been the same with which 

 the dog had the encounter.— /S'. C. Sagar. 



Small Birds and Insect Pests.— It appears 

 from the public journals that in Prance cockchafers 

 and caterpillars are making sad havoc. They have 

 stripped trees of their leaves in the Bois de Bou- 

 logne and St. Maur, and the hills from Champigny to 

 Suc}', which supply the Parisians annually with 

 so many thousands of pounds' Avortli of excellent 

 apples, pears, cherries, and plums, will, it is said. 



