HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



167 



might, we think, with advantage, be published in the 

 daily press, for there are many to whom the arrival 

 of the Indian moon-moth or of the great Atlas is an 

 event of at least equal importance with the birth of 

 Mrs. Jones's twins. There is no delusion greater 

 than to suppose that these beautiful creatures can be 

 seen as they really are in the glass cases of the 

 collector. Above the cages in the Zoo "butterfly- 

 farm " there is nearly always a small case containing 

 a dead specimen of the live insect that is within. 

 Let who will compare them, looking at the bleached 

 wings of the one, its dead and laid-out appearance, 

 and then at the brilliant colours of the other, its 

 graceful attitudes, with wings spread, wings closed, 

 or wings half-folded, now hanging, now poised. 

 Their homes are as appropriate as can be — generally 

 glass boxes filled with moss or grass, fitted with 

 miniature tree trunks and branches, and shady places 

 where the night-moths may avoid the mid-day sun. 

 — Westminster Gazette. 



Man and Toad. — Mr. H. M. Stanley relates 

 some curious African legends in the " Fortnightly." 

 One of them undertakes to explain the origin of the 

 human race. It seems that at a remote time the 

 principal powers in the universe were the Moon and 

 a Toad. They held philosophical and friendly con- 

 versations about things in general, till they conceived 

 the idea of making man. Then arose a difference of 

 opinion. The Moon wished to create man and 

 endow him with her shining qualities, but the Toad 

 was determined to make the experiment. So, taking 

 a mean advantage of the Moon when she was soaring 

 majestically in the sky, the Toad evolved man and 

 woman from his internal economy. Naturally the 

 Moon was enraged when she found she had been 

 anticipated, and in her anger she destroyed the Toad, 

 but took a benevolent interest in the creatures which 

 had been brought to life. The man and woman 

 thrived under the guidance of the moon in their 

 domestic affairs, till one fine day they found that 

 luminary superseded by the Sun. Here the legend 

 becomes rather mixed, for why the Sun should have 

 remained in the background all this while is un- 

 explained. However, if the legend is rather weak in 

 its astronomy, it is strong in the doctrine of evolution. 

 It is not pleasant to think that we are descended from 

 the Toad, and for choice most people would prefer 

 the monkey ; but it must be allowed that the African 

 legend shows how very antique is the germ of the 

 Darwinian theory. We have been flattering ourselves 

 that this was the outcome of an intellectual process in 

 a highly developed civilisation, and lo ! Mr. Stanley 

 discovers it amongst the folk-lore of Central Africa. 



Another Tomtit's Nest. — Singular as it is, I 

 doubt whether Mr. Simcox Lea's nest is so remark- 

 able as one I have here. The striking-post of my 

 entrance-gate consists of an iron column tapering 

 upwards, solid for 20 in. from the base, but hollow 

 thence to the top, with a rectangular opening 6 in. 

 high by I in. wide, beginning at 2 ft. 2 in. from the 

 base, and used for the admission of the bolt of the 

 gate. The inside diameter of the hollow space 

 within the column is about 25 in. , with the result 

 that there exists a kind of cup 6 in. deep below the 

 opening the bottom of which cup is 8 in. or a little 

 more under ihe bolt when shot. In this cup, for 

 upwards of twenty years past, a pair of tomtits (how 

 often the same pair is unascertainable) has annually 

 nested, and, except in one instance when a cat 

 destroyed the sitting hen, the majority of the young 

 tits have thriven and flown. The bolt is withdrawn 

 and replaced with considerable noise at least thirty to 



forty times daily, but the parent birds wholly dis- 

 regard both the motion and the noise. This year and 

 now, we have, so far as they can be counted, seven 

 young tits hatched out and likely to fly within a 

 week ; but how these young birds or their pre- 

 decessors contrive to reach the opening of escape, I 

 have never been able to discover. Eight years ago, 

 the annual addition of wool and hair made to the 

 nest, and the accumulation of bones and debris of 

 young birds which had died or failed to escape, had 

 filled the hollow cup to such a point, that there was 

 risk of the bolt injuring the sitting hen, and I there- 

 fore cleaned it out ; whereupon, the following year, a 

 pair of tits recommenced from the bottom, and the 

 process of filling it up has again arrived so far that I 

 have this morning been able to insert my finger into 

 the mouths of the fledgelings, and must therefore, 

 when they are gone, again clear out the cup. — J. H. 

 James. 



Honey-Dew. — We came across a rather curious 

 experience yesterday. Walking from Kingston-on- 

 Thames to Hampton Court through the recently 

 opened Home Park we found to our surprise that our 

 skirts were getting covered with a peculiar sweet 

 sugary substance resembling diluted honey. The 

 gardener at Hampton Court informed us that it was 

 Honey-Dew from the limes. Is this so? — F. C. Faux, 

 Fairmead, New Maiden, Surrey. 



The Chameleon. — Can any reader of Science- 

 Gossip give the cause of the power that the Chame- 

 leon has of changing its skin to assimilate its sur- 

 roundings ? I was watching one the other day which 

 had been brought from Algiers. When I first saw 

 it the colour of the little creature was almost black, 

 but upon being placed on a myrtle, the leaves of 

 which were young and of a bright green, its body 

 gradually began to take a green hue, and in a short 

 time it resembled the tender green of the young 

 myrtle ; of course this is for protection, one of those 

 wonderful contrivances of nature possessed by many 

 animals and insects to protect themselves. But how 

 does the chameleon do it? When placed upon a 

 stone-coloured wall it took that colour also ; but 

 when removed to a piece of bright blue paper, it was 

 not clever enough to become blue. Besides this it 

 has the most wonderful and very wicked-looking eye, 

 which it seems to be able to roll all round its head, 

 and also squints, one eye looking one way, the other 

 in an opposite direction, so altogether an interesting 

 little animal and worth keeping as a pet, though I 

 am afraid they do not live long in confinement. — 

 M. A. H. 



Bird's Eggs. — Some time since I read a query in 

 Science-Gossip about the mysterious sucking of 

 certain eggs, and I do not remember the point being 

 cleared up. I have noticed the fact again this spring 

 in such a marked manner that I again draw attention 

 to the subject. The nests robbed, to my knowledge, 

 are blackbird, thrush, shrike, bullfinch, chaffinch, 

 linnet, greenfinch, white-throat, hedge-warbler, sedge- 

 warbler, pied-wagtail, wren, reed-bunting, yellow- 

 bunting — generally before the full clutch is complete. 

 What bird or animal can we accuse ? — the jay, rook, 

 field-mouse? The old German legend says of the 

 cuckoo : — 



" He sucks little birds' eggs 

 To make his voice clear." 



I should be sorry to accuse this bird without 

 sufficient evidence, but I have often seen the male 

 cuckoo in the same locality as the plundered nests. 

 The female bird only makes a kind of gurgling sound 



