IviOTES AND QUERIES. 



Mildness of the Past Season. — 

 On the morning of Christmas day, 

 1868, I took on my dressing table 

 at Abingdon, Berks, a specimen of 

 the common Tortoise-shell Butter- 

 fly, and on the day before Christ- 

 mas day a Garden White was seen 

 flying outside the house. — C. L, 



ACIAND. 



I have started a small fresh- 

 Water aquarium. I put into it 

 several specimens of Notonecta 

 Qlauca, the Water Boatman, but 

 they were so destructive to every- 

 thing else, that I transferred them 

 to another vessel. On one occa- 

 sion I found that one of these 

 beetles had attacked one of his 

 fellows, and would have killed it 

 had I not separated them. I also 

 found one of them firmly fixed to 

 the side of a Newt ten times his own 

 size. They are themselves des- 

 troyed by DytiscMS lotus, the great 

 Water Beetle. I feed the Newts 

 and Beetles with meat chopped 

 very fine. The Water Boatman 

 will not eat fat. 



I found on one of the great 

 Water Beetles spots of what look- 

 ed like white mould or mildew. 

 Under the microscope these prov- 

 ed to be dense bushes of infusorial 

 animalcules. From a well defined 

 root sprang branches irregularly 

 and freely forked, and at the end 

 of each branchlets were two, some- 

 times three pitchers, not unlike 

 those of the common rotifer, but 

 open at the top with a kind of 

 tube projecting from them, shaped 

 like the barrel of an old fashioned 

 blunderbuss, but carved in its 

 whole length. The mouth of this 

 tube (and, I think, the mouth of 

 the pitcher itself, but of this last 



I am not sure) was ciliated, and 

 the consequent currents were 

 very beautiful. At intervals the 

 projecting tubes were sharply 

 withdrawn into the pitchers, but 

 soon again protruded. Some 

 of the pitchers (there must have 

 been many hundreds on the bush) 

 appeared to survive freely after 

 being separated from the bush 

 but I am not certain on this point. 

 Can any of your readers learned 

 in infusoria tell me the name of 

 my new friend? — C. L. Acland. 



[Probably Epistyhis nutans ; we 

 shall be glad of additional remarks 

 from any of our correspondents. 

 —Ed.] 



Gull Parliament. — The follow- 

 ing scene may be beheld in April, 

 on the beach below Copt Point, 

 Folkestone. One aged gull appears 

 amongst a crowd of others to act 

 as judge, moderator, or speaker. 

 A great deal of fussiness takes 

 place, whether of business or 

 pleasure I cannot tell, but it is 

 evidently of great importance. 

 From time to time you will see 

 a member of the community ap- 

 parently receive notice to quit 

 from the ancient swell, and im- 

 mediately he flies away to sea. 

 Whether this said victim is on the 

 " staff," or on a ticket-of-leave, or 

 is compelled to visit other climes, 

 but not at his own expense, is, at 

 least with me, an undetermined 

 question. But I have seen the 

 above take place several times, 

 sometimes on successive days, the 

 birds gathering together on the 

 sea shore. It may be worth while 

 noticing, that all this occurs just 

 before nesting begins. -A. C. Taylor 



11 FEB i^-^^ft 



