HARDWICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



23 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Ant Communities. — Sir John Lubbock, in a 

 recent lecture on the Habits of Ants, said that the 

 question naturally arose whether ants were moral 

 and accountable beings. They had their desires, 

 their passions — even their caprices. The young 

 were absolutely helpless. Their communities were 

 sometimes so numerous that, perhaps, London and 

 Pekin were almost the only cities which could com- 

 pare with them. Moreover, their nests were no mere 

 collections of independent individuals, nor even 

 temporary associations like the flocks of migratory 

 birds, but organised communities, labouring with the 

 utmost harmony for the common good. The re- 

 markable analogies, which to our human societies 

 they presented in so many ways, rendered them 

 peculiarly interesting to us, and one could not but 

 long to know more of their character, how the world 

 appeared to them, and to what extent they were 

 conscious and reasonable beings. Various observers 

 had recorded, in the case of ants, instances of 

 attachment and affection. He had never, in the 

 wJiole course of his observations, noticed a quarrel 

 between two ants belonging to the same nest. 

 Within the limits of the community all was harmony. 

 On the other hand, it must be confessed that ants 

 not belonging to the same nest were always enemies, 

 even if belonging to the same species. Sir John 

 went on to give details of a number of interesting 

 experiments and observations which, he contended, 

 might be held to prove the possession by the ant, of 

 an almost human intelligence. One result which he 

 deduced was, that even in the largest nests the ants 

 all recognised their companions. He had invariably 

 found that if a strange ant, even of the same species, 

 was introduced into a nest, she was sure to be 

 attacked and driven out. He had also made some 

 experiments on the power possessed by ants of re- 

 membering their friends, and he found that after a 

 year's separation they did so. 



Fruit and Blossom. — In your December number, 

 a correspondent mentions his having seen an apple- 

 tree this year bearing fruit and blossom at the same 

 time. At Bramford, in September, I noticed a pear 

 tree having several bunches of blossom, together 

 with a fair quantity of rapidly-ripening fruit. A 

 friend, too, has to-day told me of an japple-tree he 

 saw in September, near Portsmouth, which had a 

 great quantity of bloom, but no fruit. In the example 

 I observed at Bramford, there was not that lack of 

 leaves mentioned by Mr. Horn. — L. Creaghe-Haward, 

 Bramford, Ipsivich. 



Marcle Hill. — Some time ago, I remember 

 seeing an enquiry in Science-Gossip (I think it was 

 the February or March number), from a gentleman 

 in Merthyr Tydvil, asking some reader to give him 

 particulars and peculiarities of Marcle Hill, near 

 Woolhope, Herefordshire. Having lately spent my 

 holidays at Woolhope, I venture to describe this hill 

 as best I can. In my edition of Camden's " Britannia," 

 a note runs thus : — " Near the conflux of the Lugg 

 and the Wye, eastward, a hill, which they call 

 Marcley Hill, in the year 1575, roused itself up, as 

 it were, out of a sleep, and for three days together, 

 shoving its prodigious body forward with a horrible 

 roaring noise and overturning all that stood in its 

 way, advanced itself (to the great astonishment of 

 the beholders) to a higher station ; by that kind of 

 earthquake, I suppose, which the naturalists call 

 Brosmatia." In my opinion the moving, or upheaving, 



of this hill has left nothing in particular visible that 

 is not common to other hills situated in Hereford- 

 shire, to show that an earthquake ever took place 

 here. At the foot of Marcle Hill is a large road- 

 stone quarry. A footpath runs along the top of the 

 hill for about a mile. The view from the summit of 

 this hill, on a clear day, is magnificent. The hill is 

 surrounded by cultivated fields, and there is a chapel 

 called Kinnaston, standing, I should imagine, close 

 to the spot where the former Kinnaston Chapel stood, 

 before the moving of Marcle Hill. The hill itself is 

 on one side covered with shrubs, bushes and trees, 

 the other side appears to be cultivated. — David J. 

 Bevan, Birmingham. 



V. C. Album. — In reference to a note I saw in a 

 recent Science-Gossip on the occurrence of V. C. 

 album in Caernarvon, it may be of interest to your 

 readers that I saw several specimens at the end of 

 August, at Tynigraes, near Dolgelly, and one at 

 Nevui, Caernarvon. At the former place I also found 

 C. xerampelina on an ash tree. C. edusa seemed 

 quite common everywhere in North Wales, and I 

 have seen a good many about here (Hereford) this 

 year, where their occurrence is unusual. In Kent I 

 saw simply swarms of them, with some helice. — 

 A. E. Boycott. 



Is the Hedgehog really unaffected by 

 Poison. — From time to time I have noticed in your 

 valuable paper, Science-Gossip, reports from 

 various correspondents asserting that poisons of 

 different kinds have no effect whatever on the hedge- 

 hog, and this is again repeated in a note for the 

 current month, November. We live in a street with 

 the house coming right up to the pavement in front, 

 and the back and sides thereof inclosed by a wall at 

 least five feet in height. A few years ago conster- 

 nation reigned in our kitchen in consequence of 

 what was then believed by the servants to be a large 

 rat which had appeared in the larder. By the direction 

 of my mother some of Keating's vermin-killer was 

 obtained and put into some bread and milk in a 

 saucer and placed on the floor of the larder ; on the 

 following morning a fine hedgehog was found dead 

 therein. Thinking that the above fact might interest 

 your numerous correspondents I venture to forward 

 this brief note. — Carletori Rea. 



Reply to Mr. Chaytor's Query. — A gallon of 

 water contains 277 '28 cubic inches; area of f-inch 

 pipe, '4417 of an inch ; therefore, length of pipe to 

 hold one gallon 627*75 inches. — y. Terry. 



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