NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
15 
children how strong the shell was — surely a superlluous and cruel proceeding. 
If one rubs the fore part of the shell ever so lightly out comes the head at once, 
showing (we presume) that the shell is sensitive. Tortoises love to have the 
under part of their neck stroked and will stretch out their necks to the fullest 
extent and blink, blitik, with their queei little bead like eyes, in a most self- 
satisfied way when they are thus caressed. Some time ago we bought a tortoise 
for a young friend. On placing the newcomer with Vacob, both tortoises 
stretched out their heads and with them rubbed each other alternately under the 
neck. 
It is only fair to add that Yacob has had special educational advantages, and 
the baby tortoise seems likely to be similarly privileged. V'acob has frequently 
figured in criticism le-sons given by lady students in a well-known teachers' 
training college. During the short sojourn of the baby toitoise in England, he 
has already figured twice before this august educative assembly, and the reports 
received of behaviour thereat have always been of the highest excellence. “ We 
have a college tortoise,” the young ladies say when they come to borrow our pets ; 
“he lives in the college grounds, but, when we find him, he is generally covered 
with mud and dirty looking ; and then he will not budge out of his shell, nor 
move at all, and the children do not feel interested, but your tortoises are so 
lively, and do not seem a bit afraid, so that the children are delighted.” Of course 
this statement speaks for itself. Tortoises can be made tame and interesting quite 
as well as many other seemingly more intelligent animals. 
S. W. W. 
71. Do Trout Hear ? — When staying at Dartmoor some years ago I had a 
practical answer to this question. At the side of a large pool in one of the 
streams there was a perpendicular bank about four feet above the water. In a 
hole underneath this bank there lived a large trout whose capture every member 
of our party had 1 mged to bring about, and all of us had failed. When the fish 
were not rising I determined to spend one afternoon on this tiout, and armed 
with all sorts of tempting baits, lay full length above the place which was his 
retreat. As I was watching him in the clear water underneath he suddenly took 
fright, and at the same moment all the other fish near hurried for safety to the 
shelter of the bank. Knowing I had not frightened them, I looked round to seek 
the cause of the stampede, and found a horse trotting in the field forty yards off. 
I drove the horse away and returned to the bank. After a short time the big 
trout again appearef. Once more there was a rush for safety similar to the one 
before, and on turning round I saw my brother walking towards me twenty yards 
away. The ground was peaty, and the vibrations caused by the footsteps of man 
and horse, neither of whom could possibly be seen by the fish, had been conveyed 
through the earth and the water, thus giving them warning of approaching 
danger. The sounds were quite beyond my powers of perception. Although the 
organ of hearing is “ well developed ” in all fishes, “ no fish possesses a cochlea, 
or true tympanic membrane ; but sometimes there is a connection between the 
labyrinth of the ear and the air-bladder, made by a chain of small bones.” 
Fishes are known to make various noises, some of which are musical, and audible 
to the human ear. The drumming of the Umbrinas can be heard from a depth of 
twenty fathoms, and the fishermen of Rochelle assert that “ the males alone 
make the noise during the spawning time, and that it is possible by imitating it to 
take them without bait.” From this we may conclude not only that earth and 
water are conductors of sound, but also that the sense of hearing in fish is highly 
developed. 
Market IVeston, Thetfoni, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
September, 1903. 
72. Autumn Butterflies. — Perhaps some of your entomological readers 
may be interested to know of the frequency of the Painted Lady Butterfly 
(Cynthia cardui) here this autumn. In Dulwich Park the pink flowers of Sedtnn 
spectahile seem very attractive to all kinds of insects, and on one sunny afternoon 
last week I noticed that nearly eveiy clump of that plant, which when I last 
saw it had been covered with bees, had a Cynthia seated on the blossom. On one 
plant I observed as many as five of these butterflies, and on others they were in 
