HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i43 



it ; in one corner, to the distress of rny attendant, was a 

 fine house-spider, dark, and with the longest possible 

 hairy legs. The flies worried me, also the gnats, 

 and I was obliged to have them killed ; it struck me 

 one day I would feed and tame my spider ; he scam- 

 pered away at first, but finding that I did not break 

 his web, he would rush out and sit expectant whenever 

 I lightly touched his web, and pounce upon the dead 

 fly as I presented it. This went on for some time — 

 and now for the strange part of the business, which 

 fairly startled me. As I presented a fly, I heard a 

 tiny squeak something like the cry which a bat makes 

 when chasing a fly in the air. I could not believe it 

 was my spider, and had to wait until the next evening 

 with what patience I could, the fly I had presented 

 having been as much as he cared to accept at one 

 sitting. The next evening I gave careful attention, 

 and the spider again gave his shrill and tiny call as 

 I touched the web. I was much astonished, and 

 thought I had better have somebody else to hear that 

 a spider had a voice, or I should not be believed. I 

 therefore desired the housekeeper to bring me up 

 something, and said, " You shall see my spider have 

 his supper." I did not, of course, tell her why. I 

 presented the fly, and the spider gave his call at once. 

 " Oh ! madam, the thing called out ! " she cried. Of 

 course I was delighted, two people making the thing 

 sure. A few days after that I was well enough to go 

 to another room for a little change of air, and when 

 I came back at night my pet was non est. A house- 

 maid had given my room a good dust-out and killed 

 the spider. I nearly cried. 



An Abnormal Lamb — Not often does nature 

 make mistakes and turn out her work unfinished, but 

 this week we have had an exception to the rule in 

 the shape of a lamb — one of a twin — born without a 

 tongue, or at least with only the merest apology for 

 one. The under-jaw was 1^ inch shorter than the 

 top one, and although we tried repeatedly to get it 

 to swallow milk, it was unable to do so. To save it 

 from starving to death we were obliged to kill it, and 

 on careful dissection we found it had a small tongue 

 about the size of one's fore-finger nail, and about 

 J-inch thick. Being so short, any attempt of the 

 lamb to swallow, pressed the little tongue over the 

 mouth of the oesophagus,- and thus prevented the 

 milk from entering the stomach. The trachea was 

 normal, and the lamb otherwise strong and healthy. 

 —J. H. W. 



A Cure for Stammeking. — We are told by 

 compilers of statistics that there are more than 

 thirty thousand stammerers in Great Britain. If 

 this be so, and there is no reason to doubt the 

 statement, the following communication, which 

 has appeared in the "British Medical Journal," 

 will be read with interest by a very large number 

 of persons. Dr. F. L. Nicholls, Fulborne, writes : — 

 "This infirmity is so great a drawback to almost 

 every walk in life, and for public speaking so 

 complete a hindrance, that a cure is of the utmost 

 importance. It may therefore be of interest, and 

 possibly of some use, to members of the medical pro- 

 fession having a case of this nature in their practice, 

 and desiring assistance for its cure, if I mention that 

 I recently have had the most satisfactory experience 

 of the cure of such a case. The father, a minister, 

 was very anxious for his son to follow in his own 

 footsteps, while the lad stammered so badly it was 

 not to be thought of, unless a cure could be effected, 

 and for this purpose he was sent to Mrs. Behnke, of 

 Earl's Court Square, London. Mrs. Behnke was 

 chosen from high recommendations, and very 



thoroughly has she proved worthy of them. The lad 

 has just returned home, and speaks without the 

 slightest impediment. I should state that before 

 going under Mrs. Behnke's hands, we had tried 

 various rules and recommendations without the least 

 success." 



Australian Snakes.— Professor Baldwin Spencer 

 has contributed an interesting article on Australian 

 snakes to the Melbourne "Australasian." The 

 Professor describes the characteristics of the various 

 species which are found on the Continent. In the 

 course of the article he says : — " Luckily for us in 

 Australia our snakes do not belong to the most 

 venomous kinds, such as are frequently met with in 

 India, for example. Whenever any one does happen 

 to die after a snake-bite — which, in proportion to 

 the population, is very rare — we certainly hear a 

 good deal about it, though it is quite possible that 

 the death is due rather more to a mixture of fright 

 and so-called remedies than to the direct action of 

 the snake venom. In snake-bite much depends upon 

 the amount of poison which the snake produces and 

 can inject ; and luckily our Australian forms only 

 secrete a comparatively small amount, and are hence 

 relatively harmless when compared with those which 

 in India are responsible for some 20,000 deaths 

 annually. Our Australian snakes, for example, do 

 not secrete anything like the quantity that a cobra or 

 a rattlesnake does, and are hence proportionately 

 less dangerous. Fortunately also for us, we have a 

 habit of going about clothed, and the poison fangs of 

 our snakes are not long enough under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances to do much harm, if they have to bite 

 through leather or even ordinary clothes ; and beyond 

 this there is satisfaction in the knowledge that if it 

 can do so a snake prefers to get out of your way. 

 Many people seem to regard the Australian bush as a 

 hotbed of snakes, whilst, as a matter of fact, you can 

 often travel through the scrub day after day without 

 seeing any trace of a snake, and certainly without 

 running more than the smallest chance of being 

 bitten." 



A Tomtit's Nest.— Miss Simcox Lea writes as 

 follows to the " Spectator," from Tedstone Delamere 

 Rectory, Worcester : — " A pair of tomtits have built 

 and hatched under an inverted flower-pot in my 

 garden. The nest is on the ground, but in a sheltered 

 and very dry position, and the flower-pot is eleven 

 inches in depth with a diameter or base of thirteen 

 inches. The tomtit builds a closed nest entered by a 

 small opening at the side, and in this case the adapta- 

 tion of the habit to the situation is curious. On the 

 removal of the covering flower-pot, a circular cushion 

 filling the whole ground-space is shown, nearly two 

 inches in thickness ; moss on the ground, wool and 

 hair above, like the wall of the ordinary nest. The 

 nest proper, with about a dozen young birds, is at 

 one side, where the slope of the pot and a sort of 

 protecting wall or pad of wool would act as a cover- 

 ing ; and the old birds have access through the hole 

 in the bottom of the flower-pot. How the young 

 birds are to get out of this nest, with some ten inches 

 of vertical flight to manage, is not clear."- — Tedstone 

 Detamere Rectory, Worcester. 



An Intelligent Parrot.— Of all the numberless 

 stories of animal intelligence that are upon record our 

 readers will probably be inclined to admit that they 

 have seldom come across one, equally well authenti- 

 cated, that is stranger than the History of a Parrot as 

 told by her some time master elsewhere. The 

 common — all too common — green parrot of Indian 



