Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/111

1, 1865.]

—In answer to the question, Does the sandpiper dive when wounded? I can say it does. One evening, in January last, I was out wild-duck shooting on some flooded meadows at Guy's Cliffe, Warwick, and just at the edge of dusk I saw a green sandpiper come flying past where I was standing. I shot at it, and wounded it. It dropped on the water, and lay for, perhaps, half a minute—then recovered itself a little, and instantly dived out of sight. But it was so fatally wounded that it came to the top again and died on the water. I have had the bird stuffed, as it is a very pretty one, and quite rare in these parts. A few days before the sandpiper was shot, the keeper at Guy's Cliffe shot, in the same flooded meadow, a pair of dun-birds, or pochards, as they are sometimes called. They are something of the duck species, and very rare birds in this part of the country.—S. Long, Guy's Cliffe, Warwick.

—In this article the writer inquires, Is it due to an essential oil? Probably it is, at least as regards the male fern (Lastrea filix mas). When an ethereal tincture of male fern is submitted to distillation the distillate smells of the fern, and there is left behind in the retort an oleo-resinous extract, which also has a well-marked odour of the fern. From this it seems that the preservative power is due to the volatile oil and the resin, both which are inimical to insects.—

—The eel is a fresh-water fish in reality, but it will migrate in the autumn towards the sea, if it can by any possibility get into the rivers communicating with it, and as it can live for a time out of water, provided its fill apertures are kept moist, "" may continually meet with specimens of the Murænidæ tribe "wriggling through the dewy grass to the nearest water-course." Eels bury themselves in the mud during the winter, and return in the spring up the rivers, together with their young fry. I believe some persons say that eels go out by night on a sort of poaching expedition in pursuit of frogs and slugs; but I always fancied than when so met, they were on their travels from "stagnant pond" to purer quarters.—H. Watney.

—In your March number the tortoise was mentioned as being fond of strawberries. We had, in our garden at Worthing, a hedgehog who displayed the same taste. Not, indeed, for eating the strawberries, so far as we are aware, but for gathering them, both green and ripe, and piling them in little pyramidal heaps; thus causing more waste than the slugs, from the depredations of which we expected him to defend us. Are hedgehogs accustomed to feed upon fruit as well as upon animal food?—

—Will you give me a little information respecting what is termed "adjustments" to the object-glasses of the microscope, as, being about to purchase a 1-inch and -inch object-glasses, I desire to know the advantage gained by the additional expense?—'—(The adjustment is a contrivance by means of which the aberrations caused by the varying thickness for object-glasses of -inch, or higher powers, only.)—'

any of your readers inform me if they have ever met with the Gonium pectorale in water collected from streams, ponds, or ditches, for microscopic examination, and if so, under what conditions?—

—"A young entomologist" asks what is the best method of preserving the colour of dragon-flies?—If taken as soon as they emerge, and before having eaten anything, their colours will remain bright. If this cannot be insured, the body must be slit longitudinally on the underside, and the contents removed, a small roll of blotting-paper inserted, and the skin closed over it. Finally, the insects must be dried as speedily as possible: a little artificial heat is desirable, but not too much, or they will become shrivelled.—

(see page 71).—Salamanders do not live in water, nor on water, but in the neighbourhood of water. Keep the reptile in a good large fern-case, so arranged that he can get out of sight under the rocks; he will appear every now and then, during the summer, when he will take a good piece of raw beef with a wide-mouthed snap, handed to him on the point of a stick, and be thankful for it. In winter he will quietly sleep for months, awaking in the genial spring, and, reappearing for his food, relish it with an appetite.—Charles Strange.

—I spent some weeks, last summer (1864), at Dinard, a charming little watering-place near S. Malo. In the month of July I had the satisfaction of finding no less than five or six specimens of the young form of Comatula rosacea long known as Pentacrinus Europæus. They were all attached to Corallina officinalis, and were washed ashore, with the exception of one which was growing on a rock at about low-water mark. It was exceedingly interesting to watch them under the microscope, waving their long arms slowly to and fro, probably just as their gigantic relatives, the encrinites, did thousands of years ago! I saw two of them detach themselves from the stem. The animals made no effort to swim, but sank to the bottom of the glass, where they made feeble but vain efforts to move, as the smooth surface of the glass afforded no hold to the extremity of their arms, which exactly resembles a bird's-claw. Will any reader say where this form of comatula has been found on the English coast? Is it rare? It was first seen by Mr. J. Thompson in the Cave of Cork, in the year 1823.— [In Forbe's "British Star Fishes," it is said to be found on many parts of the British coast, Penzance, Milford Haven, west coast of Scotland, and near Dublin, at Cork, and on the shores of Antrim and Down.—''Ed. Sc. G.''

—Could any of your correspondents supply me with a little material containing the diatom Eupodiscus Argus? In return I shall be glass to give either Richmond or Nova Scotia distomaceous earth, Upper Peruvian guano, or soundings from China seas.—

—In a fresh-water aquarium I possess, I have very frequently noticed the fishes working with their mouths at the glass sides. Is this owing to attractive microscopic matter collected there, or because air-bells are generally so plentifully on the sides, or are they only in search of a way out? I have observed this so very often that I should much like an explanation of it.—

—Would you have the kindness to inform me whether any danger would arise from a wound by the fang of the viper (Pelias berus) twenty-four hours after its death?—