Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/199

Is the Great Black Woodpecker British?—In reference to the supposed occurrence of this species in Britain, Mr. Stevenson (Zoologist, 9249) has shown that the two birds killed at Scole were undoubtedly the large spotted woodpecker. In Latham's "General History of Birds," amongst other works, it is stated, "one was killed in Lancashire by Lord Stanley;" but Mr. Newman (Zoologist, 9627) says, "In the edition of Latham annotated by the late Earl of Derby, and now in the possession of the present earl, this passage is erased, and in the margin is written, in his lordship's own hand, 'a mistaken idea.'" Several other occurrences have been recorded, and it would be well that all these should, if possible, be investigated.

White Sparrows in Smoke.—I recollect last summer seeing two white sparrows flying through the smoke from the tall chimney of a cloth-mill at Road—a short distance from the scene of the noted Road murder.—W. E. Williams, Jun., M.D.

Whiskered Tern.—Mr. Gatcombe has recorded the occurrence of this rare bird near Plymouth a short time since. It was picked up alive on the water by some fishermen and brought ashore, but soon died. It is now in the collection of Mr. F. C. Hingston, of Plymouth.

Myriad Zoophytes.—In one species found on the Irish coast, and with cells upon one side only Dr. Grant calculates there are more than eighteen cells in a square line, or 1,800 in a square inch of surface, and the branches of an ordinary specimen present about ten square inches of surface; so that a common specimen of Flustra carbasea presents more than 18,000 polypi, 396,000 tentacula, and 39,600,000 cilia.

Novel Nest-building.—At Shilford, a farm on the banks of the river Tyne, near the Stocksfield station on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, a pair of bluecaps built their nest in a somewhat curious place. A farm labourer who is accustomed to wash sheep in the Tyne, owns a pair of old boots, which he uses for the purpose of protecting his feet during the process of sheep-washing. These boots are each year tied together and suspended on the lower branches of an ash which grows near the edge of the river. This season, on taking down his boots, he was surprised to find several eggs roll out, and that a pair of bluecaps had built their nest in one of his boots. He restored the eggs to their nest, hung up the boots without using them, and in the course of a few days a colony of young bluecaps issued from the pedal envelopes which had been this season at least put to a novel purpose.—T. P. Barkas.

The Notes of the Cuckoo.—In White's "Selborne" the following memorandum from the 7th vol. of the "Transactions of the Linnæan Society" is quoted:—"The cuckoo begins early in the season with the interval of a minor third; the bird then proceeds to a major third; next to a fourth, then a fifth; after which his voice breaks without attaining a minor sixth." It is added, that the circumstance had been observed long before, certainly as far back as the publication of Heywood's Epigrams, 1587. But surely this is unsatisfactory. No mention is made of the interval of a tone, which one has heard times out of number; three times certainly I heard it to-day, June 15th. Besides which, at least in this neighbourhood (i.e. near Farnborough station), minor thirds, major thirds, and fourths, have been all of them heard plentifully during the whole time that cuckoos have been singing. A fifth I have never been fortunate enough to hear. Strangely enough, the idea occurred to me some years ago, that possibly the interval might widen with the advance of the season; and for some ten days or so (I did not observe with any accuracy, not having any real expectation of finding it thus) I did hear minor thirds, then major thirds, then fourths, successively. But as I began to suspect there might be something in the idea, a whole sermon of tone-intervals, minor thirds, major thirds, and fourths, was all at once preached at me upon the text of "hasty induction." I was therefore greatly surprised afterwards in reading the quotation from the "Transactions of the Linnæan Society." As we are said to have one species only of the cuckoo, is it possible that each bird follows the order referred to? If so, some begin late, or are very long over their first lessons.—S. C.

The Arctic Clio.—This little mollusk (Clio borealis) is about an inch in length, and so abundant in the Arctic seas, as at times to colour the surface for leagues, and to form an important supply of food to the great whale. The head is furnished with six retractile appendages, which are of a reddish tint, from the number of distinct red spots distributed over their surface, and amounting on distributed over their surface, and amounting on each to about 3,000. When examined under a high magnifying power, each of these specks is found to consist of about twenty suckers, each mounted on a footstalk, so as to be projected beyond the edge of their sheath, and applied to their prey. Thus there will be 360,000 of these microscopic suckers upon the head of one Clio; an apparatus for prehension perhaps unparalleled in the creation.—Paterson.

The Roller.—A beautiful male, in perfect plumage, was taken alive on board a vessel off Yarmouth about the 25th May, as recorded by Mr. Stevenson in the Zoologist (p. 9664).