Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/127

I have long had in my possession a box of dried ferns mounted on sheets of paper, in which little insects, like paper-mites in size, live and breed, as may be seen from the portrait below. The creature has nothing to recommend him on the score of beauty, for he is incorrigibly ugly, and at first sight through the microscope quite startling to a novice in the science of microscopy. On further examination, however, this wears off, and many beauties may be discovered. The antennæ or feelers are very marvels of constructive beauty, being formed of a great number of joints, by means of which they can be turned in any direction with the greatest of care and dexterity; the forceps are formed in the same way, all in joints; so are the legs—that portion of them begins at the termination of the thigh, and are in four or five sections; besides this, there are scattered all over the insect short bristles, some round the mouth, which give the little creature a very ferocious aspect;

the back, as may be seen above, is striped across, and these stripes or rings are indented. I have not at present been able to discover any organs of vision, and rather think he has none; they certainly would not be of any use, because he always lives in the dark. One thing, however, is certain that, seeing or not, he continues to collect the spores of the ferns, and builds with them a very pretty dome-shaped nest, lined throughout with a white down, underneath which he first deposits the egg. I found in one of them a young one partly formed; the legs were just cropping out from the sides. There appears only to be one young bird in a nest, so that the insect is not a very prolific breeder. I have tried various means to rid the ferns of these little creatures, but at present without having succeeded; and as it gives me an opportunity of sending you his portrait, I feel rather glad that I had not succeeded, and also that I have discovered some hidden beauties of secret nature, which I must have remained ignorant of; and I am sure that no one can be otherwise than better for a knowledge of such things, seeing that their contemplation must raise our admiration and cause us to wonder more at the majesty and power of the Great Creator, who should have thought it well to bestow such infinite pains on these tiny objects of His creation.G. Bailey.

The Natterjack Toad (Bufo Calamita).—As many readers of Science-Gossip have written to me for specimens of this reptile, perhaps the following short notice of my chase after them may not be unacceptable:—On Thursday, April 6th, I was looking about Wisely Heath all day for them, but did not find one. After dark, or, at least, after the rising of the moon, I was returning home across the heath, and when near a pond something ran quickly across the path. I took it up, and saw by its bright vertebral stripe, showing clearly in the moonlight, that it was a natterjack. I therefore commenced looking round the pond, and caught no less than fifty-seven of them. The noise they were making was very great; their croak being hoarse, and one continued note, instead of, as in the common toad and frog, a succession of short notes. The natterjacks showed more sense than the toads by leaving off croaking, and squatting close to the ground to escape observation whenever I approached one of their haunts, while the toads kept croaking and hopping. I found them always in shallow water (in which they can sit with their heads out), and, as their name implies, among reeds very often. On Friday night I caught a still larger number. I see now why their eyes are so much brighter by night than by day, as they are evidently nocturnal in their habits; but until this time I have always caught them on hot sunny days going about the heath in pairs.—W. R. Tate, 4, Grove-place, Denmark-hill, Camberwell.

Local name for the Toad.—About Wisley, in Surrey, the common toad is called always the "ground toad," in contradistinction to the natterjack or "goldenback."—W.R.T.

Child Poisoned by a Toad.—A young lad, ten years of age, named Louis P——, whose parents are small tradespeople in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, was playing with some of his companions near Bercy, not far from a building in the course of demolition. This boy, who was of a delicate constitution, had a slight abrasion of the skin of the right hand. Having seen a lizard crawl into a hole in an old wall, he put in his hand, but instead of the lizard he drew out an enormous toad, which he immediately threw on the ground. The skin of the toad is covered with large tubercles formed by an aggregation of small pustules open at their summit. A milky liquid, of a yellowish white colour, very thick, and of a fetid odour, escapes from these tubercles when the animal is irritated. Whilst the lad had the animal in his hand, this liquid, which is a violent poison, was introduced through the wound in his hand into the blood. He was soon after seized with vertigo, vomitings, and faintings, and was carried to the house of his parents, who called