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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 



judging from its structure, it must be a dangerous 

 animal. 



A Gigantic Spider. — A correspondent writes to the 

 Calcutta Englishman : — I have much pleasure in sending 

 you a description of an enormous spider which was 

 killed in a house here the day before yesterda3% and I 

 shall be glad if any reader will inform me whether the 

 species be well known anywhere, or whether there be 

 another Indian species at all corresponding with it in 

 size. I take my description from the specimen in spirits, 

 and can only indulge in regret that I did not see it alive. 

 The creature was found clinging to a door-curtain, and 

 when alarmed emitted a grating sound, but whether with 

 its mandibles or with its feet could not be ascertained. 

 It showed no disposition to run away or even to move 

 from the spot where it was till it was thrown down, 

 when it was killed with a blow of a stick. It is quite 

 two inches in length and half an inch in breadth, and the 

 two segments of the body are equal in size. It is dis- 

 tinctly short legged for a spider ; but the eight legs are 

 very strong and heavy. The body, too, is covered with 

 fine short hair and is all of a dark-brown colour. The two 

 fangs are like a sparrow's claws and exceedingly sharp, 

 and if stretched out straight would, with the fleshy part, 

 measure nearly half an inch each. I find it difficult to 

 convey an adequate impression of the terrible and 

 formidable appearance of the monster. The common 

 large running spider, to be found in every house in 

 Calcutta, unhesitatingly tackles and destroys the largest 

 cockroach. Judged by that standard, this spider ought to 

 make its prey of a small bird or a mouse, according to 

 the tales that are told of the South American tarantula. 



Sparrow Hawk and Water Hens.— In the Newcastle 

 Chronicle a correspondent of Mr. Kerr describes a strange 

 attack of a sparrow hawk on a brood of young water hens 

 which he witnessed. He was trout fishing in the pool 

 in question, a preserved piece of water, which is sur- 

 rounded with trees, and well fringed with reeds amongst 

 which nest several pairs of water hens and coots. 

 The coots are most pugnacious and jealous birds, and they 

 insist on maintaining possession of the upper part of the 

 pool, driving the water hens to the lower end. As the 

 weather was warm and the situation rathered sheltered, 

 Mr. Kerr's friend got drowsy. At the time, several broods 

 of water hens were sailing about on the pool. Suddenly he 

 was aroused by a squatter and quacking,and on looking up 

 he saw a sparrow hawk grappling with one of the young 

 water hens, about the size of a dabchick. The hawk, when 

 it dashed on its prey, had too much " way," and it nearly 

 went overhead after his quarry. The old water hens at 

 once came to the rescue of their chick, and the sparrow 

 hawk went overhead several times. While the struggle 

 was still doubtful, the hawk being heavily handicapped 

 by having its plumage saturated, the coots sailed in, and 

 made short work of the .pirate, whom they pecked and 

 forced under water till he gave up the ghost. The coots 

 and water hens continued to peck the hawk and lash it 

 with their wings long after it was drowned. 



Walking Home. — A correspondent of the Licensed 

 Victuallers' Mirror tells a marvellous story illustrative of 

 the instinct of the Carrier pigeon, which he vouches for 

 the truth of. A Birmingham man purchased from a well- 

 known fancier in London a pair of carriers (Homers) of 

 purest breed. He was warned that they would certainly 



fly back home if released. He kept them housed for ten 

 days and gave them their liberty. They, of course, 

 started for home at once. They were returned. The 

 same treatment was repeated twice again with like re- 

 sults. Then he clipped the wings of those pigeons close. 

 The next morning they were missing again. He adver- 

 tised for them, but could get no clue to their where- 

 abouts. Nearly a fortnight later he received a telegram 

 from Coventry stating that two pigeons, both clipped, 

 answering to the description given in the advertisement, 

 had been captured a few miles from that town. When 

 taken they were walking along the road to London. 



Do Snakes Fascinate their Victims ? — In a paper 

 published in the last Journal of the Natural History of 

 Trenton, New Jersey, Mr. F. Lucas discusses the alleged 

 power of snakes to fascinate their victims and hold them 

 spellbound by some natural inherent quality. He denies 

 altogether the existence of this faculty, and attributes the - 

 general belief in it to the abhorrence, not of mankind 

 only but of most of the lower animals, for snakes. The 

 most absurd stories of this fascination are accepted and 

 cherished as evidences of the potency of the snake's power 

 over man and beast, but, when these are capable of ex- 

 amination and analysis, it usually turns out that, where 

 they are not wholly imaginary, the victim was paralysed 

 with fear rather than rendered powerless by mesmeric 

 influence. It is to the intense nervous perturbation pro- 

 duced in strong men, as well as delicate, sensitive women, 

 by contact with even the smallest of snakes, that Mr. 

 Lucas looks for the secret of the prevalent error regard- 

 ing the snake's influence. " Man and the lower creatures 

 entertain such fear of the despised ophidian that when 

 unexpectedly meeting one of these horrid animals they 

 are in the proper condition to be peculiarly affected by 

 the fascinating gracefulness and the general appearance 

 of Satanic cruelty so natural to the snake. The degree 

 of stupefying influence thus exerted by the snake de- 

 pends largely on the nervous sensitiveness or the natural 

 timidity of the subject." There certainly are cases where 

 animals have been so terror-stricken by snakes as to be 

 helpless, and where even human beings have been so 

 overcome as to require assistance, but in all such in- 

 stances the explanation lies in the excessive fear or 

 horror of the victim, and not in an inherent power of 

 the snake to fascinate. Mr. Lucas concludes " that it 

 must be accepted as a scientific verity that the power 

 to fascinate so universally granted to the snake does not 

 exist, but rather, in accordance with the Heaven-pro- 

 nounced curse on the snake, animated nature in its 

 highest and most 'sensitive form entertains such strong 

 feelings of fear and repulsion towards this animal, as to 

 suffer temporary paralysis when meeting it." 



Animal Chlorophyll. — According to a contemporary, 

 Mr. C A. McMunn has detected chlorophyll in no fewer 

 then ten species of British sponges, and other observers 

 have detected the absorption-band of chlorophyll in the 

 spectrum yielded by four other species. 



The Return of the Sardines. — These little fishes, 

 which had for some time forsaken the coasts of France, 

 have returned in unprecedented numbers. The works 

 of Audierne and its neighbourhood refuse to buy in 

 further supplies at any price. To get rid of what they 

 have already caught, the fishermen are obliged to sell 

 them as manure at half-a-crown per cubic yard ! 



