Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/124

92 the 'Strand Magazine' for January, Mr. James Scott has written and illustrated a paper on some experiments he has made to test "Insect Strength." The house-fly and the earwig were selected as the most suitable for the purpose. Mr. Scott appears to rather mix up the Coleoptera and Orthoptera, but his experiments with the earwig cannot be misunderstood, and one of these insects was ingeniously harnessed to a cart 1 in. long and ¾ in. wide, formed with a piece of cardboard, having its sides bent down, between which two pieces of lead-pencil (after the lead had been removed therefrom) were pivoted by means of a couple of needles. To this conveyance was attached the farther end of the cotton connected to the earwig, and then the service of the insect was patiently awaited. After having fully investigated the peculiar "snake" which encircled it, it showed signs of vigour, and made off at what "I suppose must be called a trot, dragging the cart quite easily behind it. Then a match was loaded upon the waggon, making apparently but little difference to the earwig. Matches were successively added until the load comprised an accumulation of eight. At this point the insect showed signs of a faint struggle, such as a horse does when slipping about the roadway with a somewhat heavy burden. Although he managed to propel a heavier load than this, it would be equivalent to overwork if he dragged more than eight. I placed the eight matches upon the scales, and found that their combined weight was twenty-four times that of the insect. Each piece of timber was four times longer than the carrier, making in all a load of wood thirty-two times longer than the earwig. A horse is thicker in depth than breadth; whereas an earwig's breadth exceeds that of its depth. In length (proportionately) there exists little noticeable difference; so that, for the purpose of description, it may be assumed that, except for the difference in the number of legs, a horse corresponds in proportion to an earwig." Mr. Scott has pictorially represented a front view of a horse laden with pieces of timber each of the comparative length of a match. There would be eight of these huge beams, and it "may be fairly doubted whether an ordinary horse (or even a pair of horses) would be endowed with sufficient strength to enable it to shift the load, without expecting the animal to drag it with tolerable ease."

'Revue Scientifique,' in its first number for this year, contains an interesting note on "La mémoire des poissons." It is copied from 'Le Chasseur francais,' and the incident was related by M. Mœbius. He placed a Pike in an aquarium with some small fish, which he afterwards separated from the "fresh-water shark" by a plate of glass. The Pike at first made desperate efforts to reach his prey, knocking himself furiously against the invisible obstacle till he was frequently giddy and apparently half-killed by the violence of the shock. Little by little, however, his