421 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
when grubs are many, and he has them all to 
himself, I hereby apologize to all the race, moved 
to do so by the conviction that whatever fills 
earnestly its place in nature is fit subject for 
honour or for praise. 
This year, as in many others, I have marked 
the passionate devotion of the starlings for 
their young; I have watched them here 
singling out from a little Bedlam of shrill whirr- 
ing cries, the call of their own particular young, 
as the sheep do with their lambs; and since that 
time in has delighted me to watch the well-grown 
but not yet feather-beautiful youngsters practis- 
ing their flights in swaying clouds, making, as 
Nature so often does, that beautiful collectively 
which single is uninviting. The understanding 
was perfect with which they manoeuvred in un- 
broken columns in this field of air; and the 
interest in the sight was enhanced by the sough 
of their wings and the “burr” from their throats 
whenever they swept earthwards and rushed, close 
by me to tell me that life is happiness, at least 
when life is young. 
% 
I have not, like Owen Meredith, written an 
ode to my star-spangled friend, but I have never 
slit his tongue to double his faculty for talking, 
and I have never imprisoned him, even so com- 
fortably as he is imprisoned at Belle Vue, that 
he might cry like Sterne’s in The Captive — “ I 
cannot get out.” And when the leafy trees are bare 
through which I have watched him this morn- 
ing, and the winter has fully come whose icy 
arrows strike to the frozen hearts of the shelter- 
less birds, I promise to feed bountifully the 
trustful starling if he will come to my door, as 
the starlings came last winter; and when his 
meal is done, and from some neighbouring tree 
he tries between the intervals of his toilet, to 
make low but grateful utterance of his thanks, 
I will hope, and bid the starling hope, for the 
return of those brave sunny hours which both, the 
birds and I have known this peaceful Sabbath 
morning. 
A. Walker. 
On the Occurrence ot Echeneis Naucrates 
in Maltese Waters. 
A fine specimen of a sucking fish or Echeneis, 
which was caught in the Grand Harbour some time 
back, has been presented to the Malta University 
Museum by Cap. John Francia R.M.M. 
it measures 14| inches in length, and its suctorial 
disc, which is 2| inches long and jjj m. broad, has 
21 laminae. 
It belongs to the species Naucrates which is con 
sidered by Dr. E. Moreau as extremely rare in the 
Mediterranean. Of this species no mention is made 
by the late Prof. Gulia in his “ Tentamen Ichthyo- 
logiae Melitensis ” although he admits the more 
common “Echeneis Remora” with the indication 
that the number of the laminae in the Suctorial 
disc is variable “ uti recte monet Princ, Bonapars.” 
As the actual number of laminae is not mentioned 
by Prof. Gulia, which number being greater or less 
than twenty is nowadays considered as a specificcha- 
racter, we have no means of ascertaining whether 
the Echeneis Remora of his Catalogue is different 
to the one now classified as Naucrates in the 
Ichthyological Collection of the University Mu- 
seum. 
N. Tagliaferro. 
A Novel Industry. 
A writer in the Petit Journal gives an interest- 
ing account of a new industry which has just 
been started at Besaneon, in France, where wood 
pulp is converted into soft silken thread. 
“I am going to tell you about the most astonish- 
ing thing, the most surprising, the most mar- 
vellous, the most miraculous, the most trium- 
phant, the most astounding, the most extraordi- 
nary, the most incredible, the most unexpected 
the most prodigious, the most unique, the most 
brilliant and the most worthy of imitation and 
envy of this century— -it is the invention of Count 
de Chardonnet, by means of which wood pulp or 
cotton is coverted into durable, luminous and 
elastic silk. ’ 
For a long time after its dicoverv the process and 
System of M. de Chardonnet remained concealed in 
his laboratory. It made its first appearance at the 
Exposition of 1889j where it received the highest 
