HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



53 



came up, to escape the snap of a grey lizard, other- 

 wise she was inclined of course to leap. Mark, too, 

 what evident adaptability is displayed in this very 

 ancient race of creatures, that is coeval with the coals 

 that compose the briquette. Locusla cantans, ghastly 

 and pale, short winded, bold, and callous ; Locusta 

 •viridissima, long-winged, verdant, and wary ; 

 Decticus verrucivorus marked like griseus, but with a 

 slender, straightish ovipositor, suited to probe the tall 

 herbage. Let mortals who have sighed for pearly 

 manna, preservative balms, and an existence on 

 fibrous roots and herbs, refrain altogether to inquire 

 into the ancient morals of the bosquet, where 

 monsters appear to suck the pulsating life, and 

 where, in the space of a few days, mutilated limbs, 

 long feelers nipped short, and a languid pace, must 

 Teveal a frightful order of things. 



The shades imperceptibly deepen in the cricket- 

 haunted thicket on the banks of the Baie de Montreux, 

 and we ought really to descend before the beauty of 

 the day has flown. It is not yet, perhaps, too dark to 

 notice on the reed-stalks where the marsh thistles. 

 Cnicus oleracacm, are overhung by the alder-leaved 

 Rhamnus and glossy Guelder berries, the smallest 

 of the Leaf-crickets, Rhacocleis dorsata ; no bigger 

 than an earwig, they seem to be, with feelers three 

 times the length of their bodies, and legs that re- 

 semble spun glass. Yet the males are churring in 

 long spells, like the big viridissima, as it were a 

 number of watch-springs suddenly vibrated j and now 

 from the ooze, Mecostethns paraplenrics, a slender 

 verdant and brown grasshopper, leaps on to a reed- 

 stalk, and takes two or three paces backwards, as if it 

 were shy, or because the soft cushions on its hind 

 legs are the merest trifle flat, for it walks in its 

 parent's steps. Here, in the dell beside the cottage, 

 the Saponaria discloses its deflexed lilac petals dif- 

 fusing a sickly smell, and a drone-fly-covered aster 

 spreads its purple stars, neither perhaps having more 

 the rights of possession than the Scabiosa purpurea 

 we have met with in a Ramsgate meadow, where it 

 seemed hardly at home, and quite unsuited to inspire 

 the swift thought of beauty. 



How pleasant on our return is the seat on the 

 balcony, for the autumnal mists have brought back 

 the lovely purple and orange sunsets ! From the iris 

 in the west there shoots up a rosy-fingered ray that 

 casts a bloody stain on the face of the tranquil water, 

 and tinges the snows on the Dent du Midi with 

 magenta ; while the moon looks icy cold, over the 

 dark-blue crests that enthrone the Sugar-loaf, and 

 wall in this recluse corner of the lake. Then there 

 arises a hand-like cloud that takes spectral shapes as 

 it advances, and warriors, bulls, and recumbent god- 

 desses stand out depicted by the waning glow above 

 the frequent flash of the tempest. The moment is 

 propitious to set the wild-flowers we have gathered 

 in water, in order that they may run to seed for 

 friends at home ; has anyone ever thought of pre- 



serving also, the seeds of those that are mal-formed. 

 In the hush that precedes the storm, the notes of the 

 piano resound, the glasses are attuned by pouring in 

 water, the comb, covered with thin paper, is kissed 

 into a dirl, and a language of the feelings is heard ; 

 while our dark-eyed maidens touch the notes, the 

 grasshoppers and leaf-crickets sound their little 

 whistles, marking the stress, until the loud notes 

 spread alarm : then one good-night carol more, and 

 the rolling thunder alone is heard. The vintage 

 morning has come, the point of the Jaman is fleeced 

 with snow. Six weeks more, they say, and the 

 winds of winter will howl along the Valais. 



Note. — Bosquet de Julie. Above Lausanne, on the 

 slope of the Jorat, there is an oak-grove, which may 

 have extended ; the wood at Clarens, Byron imagines, 

 but never saw ; Clarens, formerly a dirty village, is 

 tree-less. Like William Tell, the wood at Clarens 

 is perhaps a hoax, as was Julia, wild and sweet. 



THE WATER-RAIL. 



ALL the crakes are retiring species, living where 

 they can hide from man, and conducting their 

 operations, whenever possible, in secret. This 

 shyness or disposition to remain hidden from public 

 gaze is seen clearly enough in the common water-hen ; 

 it is much more marked in the case of the corncrake, 

 only that that bird tells us of its presence by its cries ; 

 and with our other common species, the water-rail, 

 shyness is carried to an extreme degree. 



The water-rail for the most part passes its life 

 unknown, hidden amongst the herbage that grows by 

 the side of its favourite stream, or skulking amongst 

 the flags and reeds on the lock's swampy edge. 

 Still, when once we know how to take advantage of 

 the suitable conditions, we can get within reach of 

 this bird, and observe it also. 



Whilst the summer remains, and the water-plants 

 and grass grow high, we have no guiding marks to 

 tell us of the bird-life hidden by the edges of the 

 streams and locks, but when autumn has gone, and 

 the snows of winter lay a soft covering upon the earth, 

 we have such a guide in the markings made on the 

 snow. On such a day, we enter the reed-beds, which 

 still rise above our heads, and keep a sharp look-out 

 as we thread our way along the paths formed by 

 fisher, shooter, and birdnester. The water on the 

 adjoining lock is not yet frozen, and the little stagnant 

 pools and ditches in the marshy ground consequently 

 still attract their birds. There, the footprints of a 

 water-hen run along the road before us, and become 

 presently confused with the footmarks of other 

 water-hens. Now we come on another mark, in kind 

 exactly resembling the waterhen's, but not so large. 

 On comparimg this new mark with that of the 

 waterhen, we notice at once a difference in the 

 extent and depth of the footprints. These smaller 



