HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



7i 



simplest construction, the parent birds dash and 

 whirl about in the air with noisy, plaintive cries, 

 often descending and reeling along the ground in 

 front of the egg-seeker, as though both win»s were 

 broken. Dogs often become expert in finding the 

 eggs. Those of the sparrowhawk, the moorhen, the 

 coot, and the black -headed gull are often sold as 

 plovers' eggs. 



Barbaric Slaughter of Larks. — The "Vege- 

 tarian" says: — During the late heavy fall of snow in 

 Sussex, many hundreds of men employed themselves 

 in catching larks. The way in which they catch 

 them is the following : On the ground is spread a 

 net something like a tennis-net, only not so heavy. 

 It is fixed at the ends by stakes in the ground, and a 

 rope, fastened at one end, is held by the operator. 

 As the larks in cold weather fly very low (about two 

 feet from the ground), they pass across the net and 

 immediately as they do so the cord is pulled, and the 

 net falls over and catches them. In this manner 

 hundreds and thousands of larks are killed every day. 

 As soon as the lark is under the meshes of the net, 

 the man (or more generally, the boy with him), runs 

 forward and crushes the lark's head between his 

 thumb and forefinger. Between Newhaven and 

 Brighton, it is estimated that on Friday and Saturday 

 there were between 200 and 250 men entrapping 

 these birds, each, on an average, catching as many as 

 five dozen, making in all about 1,250 dozen, or about 

 15,000 beautiful songsters thus slaughtered to be sent 

 up to the London Markets. 



The Solar Year. — I see that in my note under 

 this heading I carelessly wrote of the precession of 

 the equinoxes as if it were caused by the sun's actual 

 progress through space — which, of course, would 

 give quite a fabulous idea of the rate at which our 

 system travels. I should rather have said " an 

 apparent progress," really due to certain checks on 

 the earth's motion, described in every astronomical 

 manual.— C. B. Moffat. 



A Bees' Nest in a Block of Stone. — Two 

 men in the employ of Mr. Shepherd, builder, of 

 Cardiff, recently made an extraordinary discovery in 

 the Royal Hotel building-yard. They were engaged 

 sawing a huge block of stone, from the quarries near 

 Bath, when the saw cut through a bees' nest almost 

 in the centre of the stone. Some of the bees were 

 crushed to death, but the living ones came swarming 

 out, frightening the stone-cutters, who beat a retreat. 

 The stone is about 6ft. square, and how the bees got 

 there and lived in such quarters seems rather a 

 mystery. There is, however, a hole about 6 in. 

 across running through the stone. This hole seems 

 to have been once occupied by the root of a tree. 



"European Butterflies." — There are a few 

 printer's errors in my notes on "European Butter- 

 flies " in your February number, but the only one 

 that need be noticed is that which occurs at p. 29. 

 The third paragraph begins " Here" but this word 

 should be Hera, the scientific name of the Jersey 

 tiger-moth, an insect not noticed in Newman but 

 undoubtedly British, it having been first taken some 

 years ago in Devonshire (by Mr. Jager), where it has 

 since been found annually. — R. B. P. 



Cuckoo in Confinement. — While having holi- 

 days last summer (1891) I made the acquaintance of 

 a gentleman who possessed a small collection of live 

 birds, caught in the neighbourhood. Among the rest 

 he had a cuckoo, taken from the nest in the season 

 1850. In winter it lived in the kitchen, and in 



summer hung outside, being taken into an outhouse 

 during the night. They feed the bird on raw beef, 

 sometimes roasted, eggs, potatoes, etc. The bird can 

 be very savage at times, especially when strangers go 

 near the cage. Since last Christmas one of the sons 

 has kept it in a saddle-room. During the whole of 

 its confinement it has not been known to utter a 

 single cuckoo. — IV. R. Riley, Halifax. 



A Provident Field-Mouse. — It is, I suppose, 

 well-known to most field-students that rats and mice 

 cart out their rubbish at the back-door of their 

 burrow. At the entrance to a field-mouse's hole 

 this winter there is accumulated a great quantity of 

 the husks of beech-mast, evidently cast out recently 

 by the mouse. But it is a curious circumstance that 

 no beech-mast was produced in my neighbourhood 

 this year. Therefore the stores which have apparently 

 lasted this animal till January 1892 must have been 

 collected in the autumn of 1890. Some rats which I 

 have lately been watching carry ivy-leaves into their 

 holes at one side of a wall, and soon afterwards toss 

 them out at the other.— C. B. Moffat. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the " exchanges" offered are 

 fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are 

 simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading 

 the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of out gratuitous 

 insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some 

 exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow 

 this in the case of writers of papers. 



To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful 

 to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis- 

 guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us 

 to appear unless as advertisements. 



R. B. Postans. — Will you kindly send us your address, so 

 that proofs of your articles may be sent you ? 



EXCHANGES. 



Will send collections of two hundred named specimens 

 (sixty species) Victoria shells, in return for same number 

 named recent shells of any other country. — F. L. Billinghurst, 

 National Bank of Australasia, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. 



Aprilina, rufina, protea, ferruginea, oxyacanthse, cerago, 

 silago, pyrimadea, meticulosa, gothica, spadicea. What offers? 

 Northern insects wanted. — A. E. Gibbs, "Herts Advertiser" 

 Office, St. Albans. 



Wanted, some secondhand entomological store-boxes, $s. 

 size preferred.— A. E. Gibbs, "Herts Advertiser" Office, St. 

 Albans. 



Melicerta, floscularia, and other living rotifers ; infusoria, 

 rhizopoda, entomostraca, algs, and insectivorous plants, offered 

 in exchange for micro, slides, books, pamphlets, or magazines 

 containing articles on pond life. — C. Lord, 34 Burlington 

 Crescent, Goole. 



Offered, Helix pygmena^ Pupa ringens, Planorbis nau- 

 tilus var. crista, and many other local species. Wanted, 

 Clausilia Rolpkii, C. biplicata, Helix revelata, H. lamellata, 

 Zonites Draparsiatdi, Pisidium uitidum, and varieties of land 

 shells. — A. Hartley, 14 Croft Street, Idle, near Bradford, 

 Yorkshire. 



Wanted, Cole's "Methods of Microscopical Research," 

 Marsh on "Section Cutting," and good interesting micro, 

 slides, in exchange for slides of brittle star {Ophiocoma neg- 



