vious to any sounds, however loud, which I have made for experiment close to the nest.

At one time my ants collected all the rubbish which they generally threw into the water, as well as a considerable quantity of earth, and piled it together just at the very edge of the platform overhanging the water. They kept steadily adding to it, until it hung halfway across the moat, being kept together by the moisture sucked up from the water below. It really seemed as if they planned bridging over the moat itself; but if such was the case, their design was frustrated by the bridge giving way before it reached the other side. I once cleared it all away, but they forthwith set to work to construct it again as before.

I may mention here, that I should advise the platform being made quite three inches in width from the glass sides to the edge of the bank. When anything unusual occurs to excite the ants they come crowding out, and in their eagerness often slip on the glass and fall down into the trough. They were not often drowned, but were apt to crawl out on the wrong side, and so escape. A wide platform would generally obviate this constant inconvenience. During last summer, I saw an extraordinary contest between a large Daddy-longlegs (Tipula) and my ants. The Tipula incautiously alighted upon the nest, and was inimediately seized by two or three of his legs by several ants. This was the most exciting of the many battles that I have witnessed in my formicary. The Tipula whirled round and round, striking with its legs in its efforts to free itself from its assailants. They pertinaciously grappled afresh as fast as he shook them off, until at last he got free from them all, with the exception of one, who still maintained its hold. The Tipula then flew away from the formicary; up and down, against the windows and ceiling, and tumbling over and over, but without any effect. The ant kept its hold, and after looking for a long time, I left them to their fate.

Sometimes my ants sucked greedily at a piece of cooked beef, which formerly they used scarcely to touch, and then I noticed that when they have a large and tempting morsel, they continued eating all night without cessation, contrary to their ordinary habits.

Gould mentions that he has fixed threads to a flowerpot in which some ants were confined, reaching to the ground, which they used as means of escape. I have often tried the same thing with my colony, but they took no notice of it.

A large number of young ones were born into the colony in 1872. The eggs from which they sprung must have either been laid before the males and females swarmed, or else a female must have been left behind. In either case fecundation must have been effected in the nest. It is usually stated that the males and females

pair in the air at the time of swarming, and that a female returns, or is dragged back to the nest, by the neuters to lay her eggs. My own observations have never borne out this statement, and in this case I know for certain that no female could have returned to the nest after the swarming. With regard to the nests which I have had under my notice, my idea has always been that, the two sexes having fecundated and the eggs being laid, these males and females, there being no further use for them, then leave the nest or are even ejected from it by the neuters. It is very noticeable how carefully the neuters keep the males and females from straying away for a certain period, and when that season has expired relax all their vigilance, and even seem by their eager excitement to encourage and accelerate their departure. During the year I am speaking of (1872) I never saw a single female, and only one small and young male, and I never saw a trace of any swarming at all. The formicary being situated in a constantly used room, such an event could have hardly taken place unobserved by anybody. This year my formicary has come to an end; I find that it does not do to keep one individual colony too long in confinement. They lose energy from always having their food found for them and ready at hand, and get listless from the absence of need for the constant foraging, which forms so considerable a part of the labours of an ordinary out-door nest. Besides this, when two or three generations have been bred up in confinement, they naturally inherit the kind of artificial habits adapted to that peculiar mode of life. My ants ceased to repair damages, ceased from keeping their nest clean and neat, and finally in August I resolved to take it carefully to pieces and see what had been done in the interior of the nest. On doing so I found a comparatively inconsiderable number of neuters, and not a single male or female. The nest was not nearly so universally excavated as I had expected, and there were considerable masses of it with no burrows at all. The principal passages widened every now and then into small caverns, in which the ants were congregated. Right down in the bottom of the nest, in the very centre of the mound of earth, close to the wooden platform at the bottom, I found a large, low, and irregularlyshaped cavity, filled with many ants and also considerable stores of eggs, larvæ, and pupæ. The eggs were little tiny white globules, semi-transparent under the microscope, full of granules, slightly kidney-shaped, and collected together in small compact masses. The larvæ were small white annulated maggots, studded with long and stiff bristles and with large and prominent jaws. The pupa looked like small white, and soft, perfectly motionless ants with larger heads than ordinary, and with very prominent eyes. The larvæ spin no cocoon. The eggs, larvæ, and pupæ

were really piled in this cavern at the bottom of the nest, and there were more ants here than in any other part of the colony. They of course began anxiously to remove and carry about their young when I looked in upon them. It seems to me a remarkable fact, there not being any males or females at all. I have seen no trace of a female since the swarming of August 30th, 1871. I cannot account for the young which I found in the formicary this year.

I have now had ants under my notice in my formicaries for more than three years, and have kept two kinds, Formica nigra and Myrmica ruginodis. Whether I shall next year start a colony of some fresh species, I do not know; but anyhow my ants have afforded me many happy hours. They are a class of insects intensely interesting, and little understood. In recommending the study to others I cannot give a better motto than Huber gives on the title-page of his "Recherches sur les Fourmis":

"Cherchez, et vous trouverez."

EDWARD FENTONE ELWIN.

Caius College, Cambridge.

THE ANTENNE OF LEPIDOPTERA.

THEM

HE antennæ of insects are of themselves a study, as Mr. Wonfor has shown, and the closer the observation we give them the more charmed shall we be with their diversity of form and tint. Much has been written as to the part these important organs play in the economy of the insect; but hitherto no definite conclusion has been arrived at. My own opinion is that they are employed as a means of communication. I have frequently seen beetles strike one another with their antennæ, causing sometimes a great ebullition of wrath, at another time a rush together in one direction, or a simultaneous attack on a foe. Though, after all has been said, they may be endued with a sense altogether unknown to us. But leaving the strictly scientific portion of the subject to abler pens, my desire in the present paper is to draw attention to the great and varied beauty of these adornments of creatures, perhaps the most lovely in the whole kingdom of nature. 'Quis enim eximiam earum pulchritudinem et varietatem contemplans mira voluptate non afficiatur?"

One of the characteristics by which the Papilionidæ are to be distinguished from the Heterocera is the antenna, the former, with but few exceptions, having a knobbed extremity, which is wanting in the latter, and being incapable of folding them under the wings, or of much flexibility. Although butter

flies do not present us with such difference of antenna-form as moths, a strict examination will detect a great distinction between the several families. Those of the Purple Emperor are the longest, and the tapering of the club in this species is exceedingly graceful. The ringed antennæ of

butterflies, we will proceed to those of moths; and here, as the scientific name given them by Boisduval implies, the variety of "horns" we shall meet with will be very great. They may be divided into three kinds: the filiform or simple, uncinate or hooked and the plumed or pennate: they have furthermore been called pectinated, ciliated, serrated, and pubescent. The Sphingidae will furnish us with instances of uncinate antennæ, those of Atropos being the most prominent examples; but the silvery white of Ligustri and the delicate pink of Porcellus are the most beautiful in this group. The Zeuzeride and Hepialidæ, excepting Esculi and Ligniperda in the

first-named family, are remarkable for the extreme shortness of these organs. Those of the male Leopard-moth are of a pretty globular shape, taper

ing into a fine hair. The antennæ of Filipendulæ

partake of the shining metallic lustre of the forewings. The filiform, or simple, is decidedly the commonest form, and is to be found both in males

Fig. 52. Philophora plumigera, showing plumed antennæ.

and females, whilst plumed antennæ are peculiar, without exception, to males alone. Nearly all the Noctuas have them simple; but in some of the males they are slightly pectinated. The simple form seems to be the rule too with the Geometers. Of course of all the various kinds none are so beautiful as the plumed or feathery. We will take from the several genera a few of the most striking.

Fig. 53. Thyatira butis, showing simple antennæ.

The male Monacha, with its pure white shafts, is a pretty example. Potatoria has the rays so closely placed together as to appear almost united. Those of Carpini are of a very elegant leaf-like shape. Amongst the Geometers we have Pennaria-the Feathered Thorn, with the handsomest antennæ in the entire group. Roboraria is a type of strongly pectinated antennæ tapering gradually to a point. Fagi, in the Cuspidates, is another instance of the tapering form. But to my mind few are comparable to those of Plumigera, which resemble in miniature a lovely and delicate fern. Tenebrosa, Valligera, and Segetum are about the only examples in the Noctuas, and though serrated, they can scarcely be called plumed. The illustrations are taken from insects in my own cabinet, that of Galii from a bred speciJOSEPH ANDERSON, Jun.

men.

THE BLUE GUM-TREE. (Eucalyptus globulus.)

SO much has been said lately of this tree, and of its medicinal qualities, that I have thought

a short account of it in SCIENCE-GOSSIP would perhaps be acceptable. It is a native of Tasmania, more particularly of the shores of d'Entrecasteaux channel, and of Tasman's Peninsula, preferring the damp slopes of the valleys which face the south, to those which have a northern aspect, and which are exposed in summer to the dry scorching winds from Australia. It is one of the most valuable timber trees in the world, and is admirably adapted for ship-building, for bridges, and all works requiring strength and durability. It is very rapid in its growth, so much so in fact, that any man in twenty years' time could find himself, if he chose, surrounded by a forest of his own planting. I have myself cut down a large grove, which I planted sixteen years previously, the individuals of which averaged 72 feet in height and 6 in girth. It attains at maturity enormous dimensions, probably excelling those of any other tree in the world. The Blue Gum has been known to attain the height of 350 feet, measuring 100 feet in circumference. Planks have been cut of 160 feet in length, 20 inches broad by 6 inches in thickness. In dense, forests it rarely sends out a branch below 100 feet. It yields a highly astringent gum, which has been extensively used and found to answer as a "kino," and its leaves, by distillation, were found by Dr. (now Sir Robert) Officer, to yield an essential oil, having the same properties as cajeput oil.

From analogy it might be thought that the Eucalyptus globulus would flourish where the Myrtle does in the warm sheltered valleys of South Devon, and if it could be nailed to a wall, as proposed by a a writer in the Times, no doubt this would prove to be true; but from what I have said above it must be manifest that in the course of a few years the wall would give way from lateral pressure, and that both would perish together. I have no doubt that it would be an invaluable tree to plant in the pestiferous swampy regions of the West Coast of Africa, provided that the roots were not affected by salt water. No drains would be half so effectual as the pumping power exerted by the far spreading roots of this gigantic tree. It grows well in all parts of Italy, and at the Cape of Good Hope, and it has also been introduced into different parts of Victoria and of South Australia, and I have often wondered why it has not been established in Spain, Asia Minor, and Palestine, when we should once more see the hills of Judæa covered with forest.

In its early stages the foliage is quite different from that which it assumes when about five years old, being of bluish glaucous hue, with a very strong and pungent odour. When in blossom, the young

trees have a beautiful appearance, and their large white globe-shaped myrtle blooms are the resort of innumerable parroquets, especially of the hairytongued Trichoglossi and of Lathamus discolor, which feed on the nectar extracted from the flowers. Gould has taken as much as a teaspoonful of honey from the mouth of a bird, shot by him whilst it was feeding. T. J. E.

ΟΝ

A COLONY OF NATTERJACKS. NE day in June, 1871, with my curious instinct in "full swing," I happened to be strolling on a small heath a few miles from Kingston, Abingdon, and made a somewhat noteworthy discovery. In a quarry on this heath are several small pools, which at the proper season absolutely swarm with aquatic creatures. On the above day, after spending some time in exploring these pools, I was about retracing my steps to the high-road when a very dandy of a toad ran across the path. He was lighter and more active than ordinary toads, and sported a bright yellow stripe down the back. This was my first introduction to the curious Natterjack (Bufo calamita). He did not seem to be greatly prepossessed with my appearance, however, and scrambled away in the most surprising fashion; so that to get at all a correct idea of his appearance I was compelled to gently detain him with my stick. Compared with the bloated garden-toad, I had no hesitation in pronouncing my new acquaintance to be a decidedly handsome fellow. What he thought of me I know not.

Being anxious to witness his aquatic gyrations, I used a little persuasion with my stick and induced him to take to the water, where, after splashing and frolicking about with the agility of a frog, he attempted land, but being kept in awe by the aforesaid stick, he sat upright in the shallows and stared at me with a most doleful expression of countenance.

Presently a hoarse croak rose in the air; my acquaintance started, and so did I. We soon found out the cause, for on the opposite side of the pool, and perched on a clod of earth, was Natterjack No. 2, croaking as if his dear little head would

break. Discarding my first acquaintance, I stepped across to welcome No. 2; but he suddenly ceased his song, and took a desperate "header" into the pool.

In June of the following year I learned a little more about "natterjackery," or, in other words, I became more conversant with the internal arrangements of the Natterjack's household. One day, while peeping about the pools, I saw the eggs or ova of the Bufoide; but how to distinguish between the spawn of calamita and that of vulgaris I know not. This beautiful spawn (I say beautiful with

emphasis) is in the shape of double strings of clear, transparent jelly or gluten, in which are distributed indiscriminately the jet-black, bead-like eggs of the toad, about the size of ordinary shot. These strings of ova were wound round the weeds and about the stones at the bottom of the pool in the most singular and fantastic way.

On my next visit (July 13th) the pool was peopled with hundreds of black tadpoles, frisking, wriggling, and twirling about in all directions, and "enjoying life" as only tadpoles can. Some of them, however, had assumed hind-legs, others sported four and a tail to boot, and a few were toads in reality furnished with tails.

Then squatting in depressions of the sand near the edge of the water, were dozens of little natterjacks, crowded together, tiny fellows, whom the most spider-hating of spinsters could not call anything but "dear little things." These tiny toads had the vertebral stripe quite plain, and were active little creatures. Others were issuing from the pools. They appeared in sight from the dark part of the water, sat for a time in the shallows, and at length crawled out of the water, which they did not care about entering afterwards. On August 1st I went again, and found the little toads appearing very fast from the water. On September 14th, but few tadpoles and fewer toads were to be seen, and on October 12th every vestige of toad-life had disappeared.

A gentleman who resides within a short distance of this "colony of Natterjacks," informs me that, having taken several specimens of these toads from the pools and placed them on his lawn, he found them to be great travellers, as they wandered away in all directions. He also says he has often heard the evening choruses of the "colony" when nearly three-quarters of a mile away. Kingston, Abingdon.

W. H. WARNER.

ZOOLOGY.

EMBRYOLOGY OF BRACHIOPODS. Professor Morse has recently shown that the embryo of the Brachiopods commences life as a little worm of four segments. After enjoying itself in swimming

freely about the water for a time, it attaches itself

to the sea-bed by its last segment, and thus settles permanently. The middle segment then protrudes on each side of the head segment and gradually encloses it, thus producing the dorsal and ventral shells so characteristic of the entire class.

HABITS OF SILUROID FISHES.-Mr. F. Day has just made a communication to the Zoological Society. When fishing at Cassegode he found that, after having caught a large number of specimens of various species of Arius and Osteogeniosus, there were several siluroid eggs at the bottom of the

ooats, and in the fish-baskets. These eggs were, on an average, half an inch in diameter; and on looking into the mouths of several of the males of both genera, from fifteen to twenty eggs were seen in each; those in the boats and baskets having evidently dropped out from a similar situation. The eggs were in different stages of development, some advanced so far as to be just hatched. They filled the mouth, extending as far back as the branchiæ. No food was found in the alimentary canal, though in the females it was full of nutriment.

NEW CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS.-At a recent meeting of the Zoological Society, Mr. A. H. Garrod read a paper in which he proposed a new classification of birds, founded mainly on the disposition of their muscles and other soft parts. The five muscles which he had observed to vary most were the ambiens, the femoro-caudal, the accessory femorocaudal, the semi-tendinosus and the accessory semitendinosus. After stating which of these are present or absent in the different families of birds, he showed that the presence or absence of the ambiens muscle is so intimately correlated with other characters, that a division of the whole class into Homalogonati and Anomalogonati, depending on that peculiarity, would stand the test of much criticism. The Homalogonatous birds were divided into the Galliformes, the Anseriformes, the Ciconiiformes and the Charadriiformes; the Anomalogonatous into the Passeriformes, the Piciformes, and the Cypseliformes. Among the most important changes proposed or substantiated were the placing Serpentarius and Cariama with the Otididæ, the Cypselidæ with the Trochilidae, and the Musophagidae among the Galliformes.

THE BASKING SHARK.-An interesting ichthyological discovery has lately been made by Professor Steenstrup, of Copenhagen. He finds that certain comblike bodies, which have been supposed to be appendages of the skin of certain sharks, are really sifting organs appended to the interior of the gillapertures of the Basking Shark; and he infers that this fish, the largest shark of the northern regions, which attains a length of thirty-five feet or more, lives, like the still more gigantic whales, upon the bodies of small marine animals strained from the water by these peculiar fringes. The very fine rays composing the fringes are five or six inches long, and were some years ago shown by Professor Hannover to consist of dentine, so that each of them may be regarded as, to a certain extent, the analogue of a tooth. It is remarkable that Bishop Gunnerus, who originally described the Basking Shark (Selachus maximus), and regarded it as the fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah, had noticed the existence of these branchial sieves more than a century ago; but although some subsequent writers (such as Low, Pennant, Mitchell, and Foulis) have mentioned

them, no one, except perhaps Gunnerus himself, seems to have recognized their importance in the economy of the fish. The late Sir Andrew Smith, however, describes the occurrence of a similar structure in his Rhinodon typicus ("the largest of living animals," according to Dr. Percival Wright, "the north whale excepted"), a near ally of our Basking Shark, which inhabits the Indian Ocean. Low states that the stomach of a specimen examined by him "was full of a red stuff, like bruised crabs, or the roe of the sea-urchin," but he could find no fragments of fish in it. It is very curious to find these monsters of the deep depending for their subsistence on creatures whose minuteness presents such an absolute contrast to their own gigantic bulk.

DISAPPEARANCE OF COLIAS EDUSA.-Though I have been frequently about this autumn (1873) in a district of North Kent, where this butterfly is a wellknown frequenter of the clover-fields, I have not seen a single individual. Irregularity in the appearance of the species is no new phenomenon, open as it is to various explanations. Having seen Edusa on the wing for several successive seasons, I have doubts as to the feasibility of the notion of a periodical disappearance. There is one circumstance that occurs to me that I have not as yet seen pointed out, viz., that as the larva feeds in clover-fields, the customary plan of the rotation of crops is highly against its increase. Thus, between Gravesend and Cobham are some extensive fields, a few years since covered with clover, where Edusa abounded; these are now cropped with cereals or potatoes, and the change was made just at the season when the larvæ, if hatched in the autumn, would be in a state of hybernation, and therefore, in such an event, likely to be destroyed. No doubt, occasionally at least the species follows the habit of J. rhamni, and the eggs are not laid till the spring; but I am not inclined to the belief that this is the invariable practice, as some entomologists suppose. Were it so, we should more frequently meet with C. Edusa in the spring months; whereas, in fact, it is hardly ever seen then. There can hardly be any difference of opinion regarding the change the English climate has undergone during the last thirty or forty years, it having become, on the whole, decidedly milder; and it is an interesting subject of inquiry, in connection with the economy of our Lepidoptera, and indeed of insects generally, how far this alteration has affected, and will affect, their periodical times of passing through their transformations.-J.R. S.C.

LONGEVITY OF BIRDS.-At a recent meeting of the Dublin Zoological Society it was announced that a pelican, which had been living in the gardens of the Society for forty-two years, had just died. He was believed to have been eight years old when he was brought to Dublin. How thoroughly he had