igo 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Aug. 24, 1888. 



the seed, the flower of the hollyhock never hangs or droops, 

 but remains pointing slightly upwards. 



Browning, in the verses quoted, is astray in saying : " The 

 bee with his comb." Accuracy requires " her" since the 

 male bees are not let live through the winter. 



Amphion. 



PECULIAR WATER. 



In an old book I lately met with an account ot a river in 

 Corsica named Restonice, the waters of which are said to 

 blanch every object placed in them. The elder Darwin 

 (Erasmus) states that iron laid in this river for a few days 

 looks as if plated with fine silver. At the same time the 

 water is said to be " perfectly wholesome and clear as 

 crystal." I should be glad if you, or any of your correspon- 

 dents could tell me if these statements are founded on fact, 

 and if so, what is their explanation? Septimus. 



DYE COLOURS FROM PLANTS AND SHRUBS. 

 Under this title you give a paragraph (p. 28) on dyes ob- 

 tained from " very common plants." But it is well to remem- 

 ber that these colours cannot compete either in permanence 

 or in price with those now recognised in our dye-works. The 

 colours obtained from elder-berries, blue-berries, etc., are 

 sadly lacking both in fastness and lustre, and they have, 

 therefore, been almost universally thrown aside. 



Pattern-Dyer. 



COBRAS. 



The enclosed cutting from the Homeward Mail may be ot 

 interest in reference to your article on Cobras, in the 

 Scientific News of the 10th of August. There is certainly 

 a strong impression amongst the natives of Southern India 

 that cobras entertain feelings of revenge against those who 

 injure them, and I well remember on one occasion being told 

 of an incident similar to that related in the paper, when a 

 cobra, which had been attacked but had escaped, returned 

 during the night and bit the man who had assailed it, with 

 fatal results. G. G. 



Grindelwald, Switzerland. 



" A Cobra's Revenge. 



" The death of Mr. Andrew Fischer, an employe of the 

 Madras Railway Company, at the Pennar Bridge Works, on 

 the north-west line of the railway, under most distressing 

 circumstances, is reported. He was employed as a driver of 

 bridge engines at the Pennar Works. While he was seated 

 in the verandah of his bungalow he observed two large cobras 

 on the barren plain immediately in front of the house. Arm- 

 ing himself with a stout stick, he proceeded to the spot and 

 encountered the snakes. He succeeded in killing one of them, 

 while the other, which had been slightly wounded, managed 

 to escape. Mr. Fischer hunted about for the runaway, but 

 could not find it. He then returned to his bungalow and 

 rested for some time, as he was off duty. Later in the day 

 he prepared to go to his work, and with that object got out his 

 clothes to dress. He sat on his coat, and was about to put on his 

 shirt when he felt something sting him on the back. He turned 

 round, and to his horror found a snake on the cot behind him, 

 which he is said to have recognised as the cobra he had 

 wounded that morning. He immediately sought medical re- 

 lief, and all kinds of remedies were applied, but to no effect, 

 and he died in the evening, leaving a widow and an infant 

 child, for whom much sympathy is felt. 



" ' Kellayan ' writes to a Bombay paper, ' It is commonly be- 

 lieved among the Hindoos that no animal is more revengeful 

 than the cobra, and that if an attempt is made to kill it, and 

 it escapes, it never gives itself rest until it has wreaked its 

 vengeance upon its assailant. This conviction is very widely 

 shared by intelligent people. A particular friend of mine, 

 now holding a very important position in Vizianagram, an 

 M. A and a B.L., used solemnly to tell me that this craving for 

 vengeance on the part of cobras and alligators is not a mere 

 figment of the fancy. Taking for granted that the facts about 

 Mr. Fischer's death are as they are stated to be, will any of 



your scientific readers explain whether there is any truth in 

 the popular belief that cobras trace at all hazards. the where- 

 abouts of their assailants, and do nothing until they have 

 revenged the injury done or intended to be done to them? I 

 am also informed that failing in the object of their attempt, 

 they cease to live.' " 



SPARROW HAWK (ACCI PITER NISUS) AND 

 KESTREL (FALCO TINNUNCULUS). 



I am now going to call the attention of those interested in 

 oology to a curious circumstance to which my attention was 

 called by my young friend, Mr. H. Jonas, i.e., that the sparrow 

 hawk and the kestrel lay their eggs in pairs. I do not intend 

 to say that they are exactly alike, but sufficiently so to see 

 that in a full clutch of six eggs there are three pairs ; if 

 five eggs only, then two pairs and one odd egg. Since my 

 attention was called to this fact, I have pretty well ascer- 

 tained that with the sparrow hawk the first pair laid are gene- 

 rally blotched or marked over the large end, the second pair 

 marked at the smaller end, the other spotted or marked more 

 or less all over. With the kestrel the colouring is not 

 blotched, but it varies in intensity. I have some good 

 clutches showing this peculiarity, and I should be glad if any 

 collectors of eggs reading these notes will be good enough to 

 give me any information they can upon this point. 



If the recuperative power in birds was not exceedingly 

 great, many of our birds would soon become extinct, as their 

 enemies may be reckoned from the hand of man down to the 

 creeping things of the earth. I will here mention some of the 

 enemies : first of all, the boys, who take the eggs and young 

 for the amusement of breaking the eggs and killing the young 

 birds ; then the birds of prey, followed by such birds as the 

 raven, crow, jackdaw, rook, magpie, jay, and perhaps some 

 others ; then the foxes, cats, polecats, stoats, weasels, rats, mice, 

 moles, hedgehogs, snakes, and snails. I do not accuse the 

 latter of killing and eating birds, but they get into their nests 

 and crush the eggs. The ordinary agricultural operations, 

 such as cutting hay, ploughing, etc., destroy a vast number of 

 eggs and young, partridges, larks, and corn buntings being 

 the greatest sufferers. But of all their enemies the long- 

 eared owls and the cats are their worst. The domestic cat 

 (?)— save the mark ! — when in the fields at night, is, in propor- 

 tion to its size, as savage and relentless as the largest Bengal 

 tiger. If these domestic pets are not shut up at night during 

 the breeding season, they stray into the fields and make sad 

 havoc with the partridges, and, like the tiger, where they 

 make " a kill " one night they are almost certain to return the 

 following night ; they climb trees and take the young from 

 the nests even at a very considerable height from the ground ; 

 in fact, a nest is not safe unless it is so placed to be quite 

 inaccessible to the aforesaid domestic beast. 



I cannot close these notes without adding a word or two in 

 self-justification for having such a large number of the eggs 

 of the common sparrow in my possession ; but had I not 

 preserved them, they would only have been trodden under 

 foot, leaving me nothing to corroborate some of my state- 

 ments. Joseph P. Nunn. 



Royston, August 7th, 1888. 



FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 

 I shall be glad if your readers can inform me how the 

 flowers of the evening primrose and sweet-scented tobacco 

 are fertilised. I have them growing in my garden, and fre- 

 quently visit them after dark, when they are fully expanded, 

 but have not noticed insects visiting them. L. H. A. 



Chiswick. 



*-^i^>^f«fH. 



Unusual Rainfall. — The rainfall registered at Gra3 T s, 

 Essex, for the twenty-four hours ending 8 a.m., August 

 2nd, was 5^3 inches, which is a fact probably without a 

 parallel in the meteorological records of this country. 

 This quantity represents 119,859 gallons, or 535-0- tons of 

 water per acre. 



