The ultimate fibres are distinctly to be seen in the ordinary bundles, which is not the case with flax.

A creeping plant called BEDOLEE (Paderia fætida) abounds in Assam, and yields a silky fibre possessed of great strength and flexibility. Under the microscope (fig. 14, c) it appears as a smooth solid cylinder with very slight markings.

JUTE is well known in English commerce, and is derived from two plants, Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis. The presence of this fibre, which, by the way, is an adulterant in extensive use, can be easily detected by the microscope (fig. 13, b). It has a rougher outline and is much more opaque than flax; it has no definite cross markings, and the cells frequently terminate in a tongue-like shape.

BARIALA is the native name of Sida rhomboidea, which yields a similar fibre in India. The microscopic appearance (fig. 15, a) is that of a regular, distinct, longitudinal structure. It is opaque and slightly woody. By reflected light it presents a pearly appearance not unlike New Zealand flax.

AMBAREE is the brown hemp of Hibiscus cannabinus, and under the microscope (fig. 15, 6) is very similar to the fibre of the Bariala.

The true HEMP (Cannabis sativa) is well known; and fig. 16 represents the microscopic appearance of three varieties: the Russian, Himalayan, and Italian. They are not unlike flax, except as to the transverse markings, in which hemp is usually defective, and, when present, not so decided. It is difficult to distinguish some fine samples of hemp from flax.

SUNN or Bombay hemp (Crotalaria juncea) offers a fibre which microscopically is rather like that of

Fig. 16. a. Russian hemp; b. Himalayan hemp;

c. Italian hemp.

MANILLA HEMP, the produce of a species of plantain (vol. i. p. 232) called by botanists Musa textilis, presents but little variation from other endogenous fibres, except in the presence of distinct cross-markings (fig. 18, c).

Arenga sacharifera. The figures of these fibres (fig. 19) will render description unnecessary.

It is desirable that the investigations thus commenced should be proceeded with, that a larger number of fibres should be examined, and their characters ascertained, and especially that those already examined should be viewed with higher powers, subjected to chemical action, and viewed under all circumstances. Polarization may bring new features into notice, and boiling in nitric acid should be tried. The figures in the Micrographical Dictionary, which exhibit some of the foregoing fibres after treatment with nitric acid, may be referred to, as indicating that the present is only initiative of a larger and more comprehensive work which still remains to be accomplished.

At the last meeting of the Quekett Microscopical Club, a sub-committee was appointed to examine microscopically the different varieties of commercial fibres, with the view of ascertaining if distinct characters could be found whereby one kind might be discriminated from another, and to report thereon.

FISH

Fig. 20.

ISH scales are readily available for microscopic objects, and those of the Sole are often recommended; but the scale of the common fresh water Perch is quite as interesting, and less commonly used. Those of the Roach and Dace are by no means to be despised. Scales are generally mounted dry, being first cleaned; but when it is intended to view them with the polariscope, they must be mounted in balsam. There is so much of character in the scales of different species of fish that it is a matter for surprise that so few of the cabinets of amateurs contain even a respectable series. There are. no difficulties to be surmounted either in procuring, cleaning, or mounting them; and perhaps this is one reason why they have not had the attention they deserve.*

*Consult "Micrographic Dictionary," p. 607, and "Davies on Preparing and Mounting Microscopic Objects," pp. 53, 78.

ECONOMIC FOUNTAIN FOR AQUARIA.

A

THE MOA OF NEW ZEALAND. VERY interesting volume, entitled "The World before the Deluge," by Louis Figuier, has recently been translated into English, in a very satisfactory manner, and published in this country. From this work, which is profusely illustrated, we have borrowed a woodcut representing the Dinornis, rcstored to what is believed to have been its natural

D

K

Fig. 21.

As the water in my marine aquarium requires

aerating pretty frequently, and as syringing is too troublesome, I have contrived a small fountain, of which I send a sketch and description.

D is a wide-mouthed bottle, in the cork of which are drilled three holes. Through these holes pass respectively the three glass tubes, A, B, and c; the latter reaching nearly to the bottom, the other two only passing through the cork. A is a wide tube with a funnel-shaped top, B is plain, and c is slightly bent at the top, where there is attached to it (by means of a piece of indian-rubber tubing) a long tube, E, which is bent up and drawn to a point at its other extremity.

The cork and tubes should fit perfectly. To set the fountain in action, fill the bottle, and when it is full, continue to pour water gently into the funnel until it is above the level of the bend in the tube c, when a little will flow over into the long leg E of the syphon. The water will then of course continue to flow until the level of the water in the bottle falls below the mouth of the tube c.

The tube B is for the escape of the air while filling. Care should be taken to keep the bottle clean, and free from particles of sand and grit, or these will get into the pipe and stop the jet.

Fig. 22. The Dinornis, restored.

appearance. Writing of the post-pliocene period, the author remarks: "Two gigantic birds seem to have lived in New Zealand during this epoch. The Dinornis, which, if we may judge from the tibia, which is upwards of three feet long, and from its eggs, which are much larger than those of the ostrich, must have been of most extraordinary size for a bird. As to the Epiornis, the egg only has been found."

At the meeting of the Zoological Society, held on the 12th of December, Mr. W. H. Flower communicated some notes from Dr. Hector, Director of the Geological Survey, New Zealand, upon the bones of various species of Dinornis, which had been exhibited in the New Zealand Exhibition, recently held at Dunedin.

We were led into an error in our last number (page 282), in stating that the Moa's egg was sold for

£120. It is true that this was the highest bidding, but there was a reserve beyond that sum, and we are told that the egg is to be repacked and sent back to New Zealand, as its owner is not disposed to part with it at the price.

IN

FOSSIL-WOOD IN FLINT.

N searching for fossils a few weeks ago in an excavation made in this neighbourhood, for the purpsse of getting chalk for the manufacture of whiting, I met with a fine specimen of fossil-wood embedded in a large tabular flint. With difficulty I succeeded in removing the greater part of it, together with a portion of adherent flint. The specimen measured eight inches in length, and seven in circumference. It is silicious throughout, bears traces of bark, and is riddled in places with circular holes, which are filled with pellets of flint; the holes having been most likely bored by teredines before the wood had become petrified. As the silicified fibres when microscopically examined exhibit rows of circular dots, similar to those seen on the fibres of coniferous wood, there is little doubt that the specimen is part of a pine-branch. The chalk in which the fossil was found is of the kind known as upper chalk, as it is interstratified at intervals of about six feet with densely packed layers of flints, some of which are of immense size, and when broken are often found to contain beautiful specimens of silicified arborescent sponge, coloured with oxyde of iron. Some of the hollow nodular flints are lined with exquisitely coloured mammillated calcedony. The chalk itself is not very fossiliferous, having succeeded in finding only a few Terebratule with one or two of the commoner Echini; but the workmen had picked up from time to time several small pieces of petrified wood, which were also found to be coniferous.

That such discoveries are sometimes noticed in scientific journals would lead to the conclusion that petrified wood is not common in chalk. The Geological Magazine for July last contains a notice, with a figure of a similar fossil, found also in the Hampshire chalk, near Winchester. The specimen is now in the Oxford Museum. Professor Phillips, the writer of the article, describes it as "a fragment worn and rounded in some of the prominent parts;" and adds that "it looks like a small portion of a pine-branch which had been exposed to rough treatment, so as to present a wasted surface deprived of the bark. It is entirely silicious, and reveals in the utmost perfection the whole of the tissues." He then continues: "Traversing the woody fibres are several short tubular masses, swollen at the end, and marked more or less plainly with transverse rings. These are flint moulds in cavities left by boring shells, probably teredines. It appears that these animals must have begun their operations in a

young state on the wood when it had been reduced to its present figure and magnitude; for the moulds which remain in their holes appear to be quite small at the surface and quickly to grow larger within." From the engraving the wood would be about five inches long, and one inch and a quarter broad, attached to a good-sized piece of flint.

J. S., St. Mary Bourne, Hants.

ZOOLOGY.

RED-BREASTED FLY-CATCHER (Muscicapa parca). -Mr. E. H. Rodd has addressed the following letter to Dr. Gray, on the occurrence of this bird at Scilly:-"It may be interesting to you to know that another example of Muscicapa parra, very nearly in the same state of plumage as its predecessor at Scilly, was captured on Sunday week at Trescoe Isle, Scilly. The variation in its plumage consists in the scapularies and wing-coverts being more decidedly bordered with rufus. This, I think, shows it to be a bird of the year. I expect it breeds in Britain."-Penzance, Nov. 14. (See also Annals of Nat. Hist., 1863, vol. XI., p. 229; Zoologist, p. 8445.)

THE GLOW-WORM IN AUSTRALIA.-Those are mistaken who believe that the little luminous worm of this colony never displays its light unless the soil is disturbed. The first time that I observed it was in the passage at the back of an old bush house near Mount Elephant, one very wet night. The rain had beaten in under the door, and the boards were wet and dirty. I was surprised at the brilliant light, so like that of the English glow-worm, and having carried one luminous speck into a lighted room, found it to be from a little whitish, semitransparent worm, of which several specimens might have been collected from the floor and door-posts.Wm. Adeny.

THE GLOW-WORM.-It may be worth recording in SCIENCE-GOSSIP that I saw a glow-worm giving out a brilliant light, last evening, in a hedgerow near my house. It was about 7 o'clock. I never before saw a specimen later than September.-W. W. Spicer, Itchen Abbas, Hants, Dec. 8, 1865.

BIRD SLAUGHTER. The President of the Naturalists' Field Club (the Rev. G. C. Abbs) stated on Thursday, at the anniversary meeting of the club, that he had been calculating the number of caterpillars which the 6,000 sparrows killed by a member of a "sparrow club" in Essex, and for which he had actually received a prize of 10s., would have eaten. The amount was 6,307,000,000. While the clod-hoppers of Essex are killing sparrows by the thousand, the Australian colonists are importing them at a considerable expense from England, to act the part of protectors of the crops, and thereby of promoters of the comforts of the people. -Gateshead Observer.

FLEAS. Perhaps S. J. M'Intire will allow me to make a small addition to the account of the Cat Flea. He says he has not seen the larvae of the common flea. Once, in a hot part, where fleas are rather too common, I found a blanket abounding with their eggs and grubs. When I was a boy we took some trouble to see the habits, &c., of fleas. I got a glass tube, about two inches long, and put some cotton wool lightly into the upper part of it, with two or three fleas. The other end was stopped with a cork, and to find them I used to take this out and apply the open part to the back of the hand, when the fleas made no trouble about coming down and having a feast. In this way I kept them for some time, and they laid their eggs and hatched their larvæ. But the life of these I did not trace any further. Talking about different kinds of fleas, I would mention that our English ones are much lighter in colour than those found in Africa. They attach their eggs to the fibres of the wool or flannel. Whether they always lay the same number I do not know, but I have one I preserved many years ago, and it has five eggs of a plain oval shape.-E. T. Scott.

LATE APPEARANCE OF SWALLOWs.-Amongst the many characteristics of the extraordinary weather we have had this year none is more remarkable than the late period to which the Swallows have remained with us. The main body of them left us at this place on the 10th October. Almost every year it may be remarked that a few will be seen again about the middle of November, and accordingly this year a few made their appearance on the 12th and 13th November. But on the 4th of this month a few were again playing about, the weather on that day being remarkably stormy. To my surprise, however, several House Martins appeared again yesterday, the 10th. The weather was fine; the wind east; and at 3 P.M., when they were flying about, the thermometer was 48°. I noticed upon this last occasion that they kept in their flight very close along the western side of the houses in the park here, and were only out between 2 and 3 P.M. They appeared very brisk and lively, but evidently did not like to get out of the warm stratum of air immediately in contact with the houses. On the 4th, however, they were flying high up in the air on the castern as well as the western side of the houses, the thermometer at that time being 4° higher than on the 10th. Naturalists have long been puzzled to make out where these late stragglers hide themselves, and how they subsist apparently so long without food; and also whether they eventually migrate, or remain with us till the weather kills them. A curious fact in relation to this subject came to my knowledge about twenty years ago. In removing the framework of an old clock in the tower of Oswestry Church, in order to put in a new clock, the skeletons of many scores

of Swifts and Swallows (?) were found in the hollow places behind the frame of the clock. A colony of Swifts always frequented the tower every year, and they had evidently found access to the space behind the wooden frame of the face of the clock, which projected about a foot in front of the stonework. These skeletons were apparently of all ages, most of them, if I remember rightly, full grown, and the feathers adhering to them. The sexton brought me a hat full of them, and said there were great numbers of them which the workmen had turned out. I regret that I did not examine them accurately at the time, to see if they were all Swifts, or some of them Swallows. Nor do I know whether Swifts and Swallows will breed in harmony in the same places. But how came these scores of skeletons there? The only conclusion I could draw was that some of the birds every year were either the produce of a second hatching, and so perhaps too weak to migrate with the rest, or else that, having been accidentally injured, they were unable to encounter the flight to warmer latitudes, and so remained behind and perished. The appearance of Swallows so late as the 10th of December is certainly a very remarkable occurrence. I have not "White's Natural History of Selborne," at hand, to see what is the latest date at which he observed Swallows, but I think the very late period to which they have remained with us this year is worth recording in your interesting journal of SCIENCE-GOSSIP.-T. Salwey, Dec. 11.

ÆGEON ALFORDI.-In my hunts on our coast during this week I have had the pleasure of coming upon four specimens of the Anemone Egeon alfordi. On Tuesday, December 5th, I brought home two from the pools, formed by large stones and boulders, on the beach in Porth Crapa Bay, on the south side of St. Mary's. On Wednesday, the 6th, I found another in the same wilderness of stones, nearer low water mark; and on Thursday, the 7th, I came upon the fourth in a narrow crevice of a ledge of granite under the Garrison Hill, running out into the roads on the north side of St. Mary's. All these, unlike the first specimens I found, were more or less imbedded in sand, much after the manner of Tealia crassicornis. The bases of all were expanded beyond the column, and of a red color. The column in all is very flexuous and distensible, the surfcae being divided into squares, with fine pellucid lines, each square containing a small crimson wart. The disc is cup-shaped. The tentacles are long and flexuous, but much more so in one specimen than in the other three. One I found with the tentacles quite hidden, but they were more concealed by the swelling of the upper part of the column than by their own retraction. As to colour, the columns of all the specimens were much like the one described by Mr. Pope, but in two red prevailed chiefly; in