it oy | THE : a a AMERICAN NATURALIST, POPULAR ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE NATURAL HISTORY. * > EDITED BY A. S. PACKARD, JR., E. S. MORSE, A. HYATT AND F. W. PUTNAM. VOLUME Ii. SALEM, MASS. PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 1869. is WO. ot, Garder Ta a aS, 1 O13 ee E as a ding 4 A + rest g a H th y ș 1868, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. ESSEX INSTITUTE PRESS. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. j A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. By C. Fred. Hartt. Illustrated, sie Tue GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. P Sidney L Smith š $ a 5 $ r 14, 124 THE inven iunior TH. By A. S. Packard, Tee M. D. With y and Illustrations, . . —. sigh 9 23 ON MEXICAN ANTS. of Edward Norton. With “Plate and r: tE k Ș é 3 T THE MOTTLED OWL IN CONFINEMENT. By C. J. Maynard, Š ‘ 73 Rock Ruins. By A. Hyatt. J Tiaka, . THE CRUISE OF THE ‘“‘ABROLHOS.” By C. es Hartt. Tilus- trated, ' i ` i 3 A N NOBERT’S TEST PLATE AND onara ifscnopooras. By Charles Stodder, . : : = ý f i THE SONGS OF THE Geins By S. H. Scudder. FHus- trated è ; . . BEARS AND ORRERA By Clnvies Wright, 121 THE PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE. By W. J. Sars, With ‘Plate and Illustrations, . NAKES SWALLOW THEIR Towa? By F; w. Peina. ‘ 133 THE LAKES oF Iowa,—PasT AND PRESENT, By C. A. White, i é 143 THe Faa ie T. ‘Martin Tape. > á š 1 Notes oN Tropicat Frouirs. By William T. E + 183, 307, 405 Tue GOLDSMITH BEETLE, AND ITs HABITS. By Rev. Samuel Lock- wood. Jillustrated, i 5 » 186 THE OSPREY, OR View mae. By Augustus Wooler Y, 192 THE PARASITES OF THE HONEY-BEE. By A. S. Poemi, Je, M. D. -With two Plates, i ; > k 195- zog Sea-WEEDS. By tas Es Russell, ‘ : 225 A STROLL BY THE ŠSEA-SIDE. By “Edward s. Wore: With a Plate, $ k k ` ; Our SEA-ANEMONES. ‘By A. E. Ve rrill, i ` ; 251 Tue MARINE Aquarium. From Kingsley’s ities us, 262 A FEW SEA-WORMsS. ByA. S. Packard, Jr., M.D. With Titisiralioni, 267 TRACES OF ANCIENT GLACIERS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OF ‘New HamPsHIRE. By George L. Vose. With a Map, so 281 MusHRooms. By John L. Russell, . . u me sae se BE Sponces. By A. Hyatt, ieee a THE CYNTHIA ie enue, By. W. y. A airns. i $o - 311 ae CONTENTS OF VOL. II. DEATH OF FISHES IN THE Bay OF FUNDY. sed A. Leith Adams, learn Gicrina: rO M. Tra ity 342 Tue BIRDS OF DSi AND ROR aiig, By Edwarā Copë, + ` . ` 3 TuE CHASMS OF THE Gonakati: By A. Hyatt. With io Plates, 359 $ $ k 3 Tur Rurrep Grouse. By Augustus Fowler, š A TROPICAL AIR-PLANT. By Charles Wright, š è ` 368 Tuer MorTLED Own. By Dr. W. Wood, £ 370 ON THE FRESH-WATER SHELL-HEAPS OF THE oes Tomis nevi East — By Jeffries Wyman, M.D. With a Plate ewes Illustration 2 393, 449 BELTED pe By Aucir Powis; i 403 Dmeonioss FOR COLLECTING LAND AND Fikanieaini Siini y James AN M. D. Witk Illustrations, è 410 A pea AL OW By Charles Wright, é $ > å 420 THE aga ; OR WEST INDIAN FIRE Baiiia. By G. A. Perkins, M: With I oe ae x. $ $ a 2 THE PA Sagar ohn i aseell, " é 463 DEER AND Larter tad IN Texas. By hades Wright, ‘ ‘ 466 Tue HABITS or SPIDERS. By J. H. Emerton. With a Plate, 76 Birp’s-Eyr Views. By Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A. Illustrated, 505; 571 THE WAVY-STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. By -n rel M. D. Il- lustrated, Eara . HE lan Se 4 ERNS. By Sas L. Busiell, 517W Tue FAUNA OF MONTANA TERRITORY. By J. G. Cooper, M. D;, 528, þer EARTHQUAKES. By W. T. Brigham Ș THE SMALLER FuxGI. “By Sos Bi Dussel): Filunvened: ‘ 561, ps HABITS OF THE BURROWING OWL OF CALIFORNIA. By Dr. sed Ss. A CHAPTER ON ae: ji s. Tiiiad, Jr M. D. Illustrated, 586, 638 ABOUT SHELLS. By cca Wright, 617 | A TRIP TO THE GREAT RED Porteros Quaner. By € c. A. White, M.D. . 2 ; $ REVIEWS. : The Popular Science Review, London (Quarterly), p. 36. The Animal Nature of Sponges, p.101. The nang of Zodlogy in 1866, p. 102. The American Beaver and his Works 156. Transactions of the Chicago Academy, p. 158. Popular Ps as Raion, London, p. 158. Quarterly ae ve Science, London, p. 159. gpd aoe p. 205. The Vol- cano the Hawaiian Islands, p The Geology of Iowa, p. 207. California ae p. 208. The te of pie. and Plants under Domestication, p. 208.. Cosmos, Paris, p. 209. Quarterly Journal of Science, London, p. 209. Good Books for the Sea-side, p. 275. North American Grapes, p. 320. The Corals and Star-fishes of Brazil, p- 822. The Book of Evergreens, p. 322. The Butterflies of North Amer- Aire oy ies ae Sd See ee Ry Oe Pe a ee ee Be 2 I is th at i Fee ee ee ET ee OP AE! fa mee ees Se ee eee Pe ee ee, CONTENTS OF VOL. Il. ODA ica, p. 323. The Popular Science Review, p. 375. A Guide to the Study of Insects, p. 376. The Percheron Horse, p. 433. American Deer, p. 435. ico, p. 435. The nnen Faiomojogith p. 435. The American Ento- ny, p. Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, p. 554. Natural History of Birds, p. 554. Review of the Scandinavian Publications in Natural History during 1867 and part of 1868, pp. 555, 604. Ferns, p. 601. The Past and Future 603. The Butterflies of North America, p. 603. Comparative Anatomy and — Zoology, p. 654. Prospectus of ee logist’s Annual for 1868, p. 6 Voyage through the Grand Cañon of Colorado, p- 655. Chemical eens p. 656. Insect Extinguisher, p: sia NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. ANY.— Monstrous Flowers of Habenaria fimbriata, p. 88. The ElL- der (Sambucus (isthdensia) as a Native Plant, p. 38. German Ivy, p. 39. Long or Black Moss only an R i ae p. 212. Anomalous Flowers of . oe White Wild Gohabbika: etc., p. 213. Is the Elder a Native ony, p. š ety of Ka p. k ite AR A . 824. Cross Fertilization, p. 487. The Onion Plant, p. 440. pinaliit Flowering plant known, p. 440. Planera aquatica, the a a p. 441. Viola rotundifolia, p. ge Va- riation in Wild iy p. 484. Saxifraga Virginiensis, p. 484. The Col- chicum autumnale, p. 609. The Double Saxifrage, p. 610. sen pedata, p. 610. Recent Basi Discoveries, p. 610. Cuban Plants for Sale, p- 611. Botanical Notes, p. 611. Hepatica triloba, p. 611. White Varieties of Flowers, p. 656. More White Varieties, p.657. Bidens frondosa, p. 658. Abnormal Form of the Sensitive Fern, p. 658. ZoöLoGY:— The Breeding Habits of Birds, p. 47. live: Parasites, p. 48. ation of Wild Bees, p. 49. Juvenile Natural History Society, p. 49. Protection of Trees from geet p. 49. Occurrence of the Barnacle Goose in North pice p. 49. A Double Egg, p. 50. Habits of the Striped Snake, p.50. Are Bees Injurious to Fruit? 108. Apiphobia; Bees and Fruit Blossoms, p. 109. The Mottled Owl, p. 109. An Albino Hum- ie CONTENTS OF VOL. II. ) ming Bird, p. 110. Instances of Aibinism among our Birds, p. 161. Return of the Birds, p. 162. How Spiders begin their Webs, p. 214. The Wolverine, p. 215. The ane Bird, p. 215. The Dragon Fly, p. 215. The False Scorpion, p. 216. e Jack Snipe, p. 216. The Locust Killer, p. 217. The Prairie Dog, p: ae The Robin at Fault, p. 217. A Variety of the Blackbird, p. 217. The Belted Kingfisher, p. 218. The Dwarf Thrush in Massachusetts, p. 218. Insects living in the Sea; J lustrated, p. 277. Directions for collecting the Lower Forms of Marine Animals, p. 278. Shore-collecting about New York, p. 324. The Crow Blackbird a Robber, p. 326. Notes on the Red and Mottled Owls, p. 327. A Perching A i ss F gH] oo bo p= mn et Lar 9 i a =] ct [png [s] = (s) lac) © = m [sp] hae hd & n p: B e+ E © |e] bar © oO a _ 5 itis} n oO © m (=) i i", 9. D -water Insects, p. 329. Enemy of the Potato-bug, p Review of some of the articles published in' this Journal respecting the op and Nesting of our Birds, with Additional Facts, p. 877. The warf Thrush, p. 380. The Honey-bee gleaning after the Oriole, p. 380. Remark Flight of Crows, p. 381. Singular Deformity in a Silk-moth, p. he Honey-ant, p. 382. The Golden-winged Woodpecker, p. 382. Habits ä the Elephant, p. 382. RRR the Cotalpa lanigera, p. 441. he Seventeen-year Cicada, p. 442. Muse eeN ea, p. 442. The McNeil Expedition to ential pi p e Shells of Mon- tana, p, 48 ts on Oöl p The sa Mien sais p Acid for Preserving Insects, etc., p. 490. Albino Robin, p. 490. King- fisher’s Nest again, p. 490. The Cow-bunting, p.490. Migration of Ants, A p. 491. Is the Crow a Bird of Prey? p. 491. Albinism in Birds, p. 491. Migration of Birds, p. 492. The Unicorn of Fable, p. 492. Siredon, & Larval Salamander, p. 493. The Yellow-headed Blackbird, p. 493. Habits of the Common Red Fox, p. 494. The Lobster, p. 494. The Moose Tick, —— p. 559. The McNeil Expedition, p. 612. Ambergris, p. 614. , M eee Vitality of Snails’s Eggs, p. 665. Honey-bee killed w Silk-weed Pollen, p. 665. Luminous Larve, p. 665. Snails Injurious to the Strawberry, P- 666. Ravages of the Alypia octomaculata, p.666. The Blue Bird, p. 667. A Medes Echinoderm, ; GroLocy.—Fossil Insects, Dhalia: p- 163. The Bone Caves. of 4 Brazil p their Animal Remains, p. 218. Glacial Marks ín the Whi Mountains, p. 330. Antiquity of ilh, p. 443. What is a Geode? p. 496. = Iowa Drift, p. 615. —The Microscope in Geology, p. 50. The Whale’s Food and = o re the Arctic Seas, p. 383. Wanted, a Rotifer, Pe ILLUSTRATIONS. vii ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR, Illustrated, pp. 110, 163, 219, 331. CORRESPONDENCE. — The Mistletoe, p. 51. The Mastodon in Kansas, p. 51. Are Bees gaa to Fruit? p. 52. Sugar Maple Insect, p. 52. vie ine, p. 52. Snow Fleas, p. 53. Frog’s Spittle, p. 53. Manual of erican a a 111. Baiar and other Mites, p. 112. Taxidermy, ‘ PN American Entomology, p. 168. Fossil Club-moss, p. 168. Fresh- water Sponge, p. 168. Snails, p. 224. American Shells, p. 224. Duck- weed, p. 280. Solvent for Reeling the Silk from Cocoous, p- 280. Seventeen-year Locust, p. 208. Pentstemon Cobma and Solanum ros- tratum, p. 330. Musk Turtle, p. 330. Thyreus Nessus, p. 331. Cow- bird, p. 392. Taxidermy, p. 392. Measuring Eggs, p. 392. Long-billed Curlew, p. 392. Podura, p. 447. Tree-cricket, p. 448. Cynthia Silk- worm, p. 448. Caddis-fly, p. 448. Psocus, p. 448. Packing Insects, p. 448. Eudryas grata, p. 448. Kingfishers, p.503. Insects, p. 504. North e . 560. ss p- $ Witches, Lepisma, p. 616. Papilio Asterias, p. 616. Luna moth, p. 616. Are Plants Injurious in sleeping apartments? p. 669. Works on Spiders, -670. Does the Eon catch Owls? p. 670. Siege Fungus, Hydnum, p. 670. Pink Mite PROCEEDINGS on thats SOCIETIES, pp. 53, 165, 221, 279, 334, 384, 444, 497, 668. GLOSSARY, p. 671. _ LIST OF PLATES. Plate Page| Plate , Page 1. Hairy Mammoth . 23] 7. mar of the White Mountains, 2. Mexican Ants, eleven ven figures, ` . 3. Head of Prong Horn Antelope, two 8. era rea ’ Peak, Colorado Te erritory, 350 res, . 133) 9. Chasm of the Colorado, ee ae 4. Parasites of "Honey Bee, “nineteen 10. Indian relics from the apenas ge 5. Parasites of Humble Bee, ete., ; sev- ll. Details of s. 6. Common mon Animals ba the Seashore, 12. Flies, rotear sdla ‘three figures, ey 251/13. 13. Flies, nin eteen figures, oe LIST OF its CUTS. r , PagejNi Page dos Abrolhos, 1/33. 53. Prong Horn Antelo . BI a tO O sense css Brazil, 3 34, 35 de —e of Prong Horn e figures, y best lope, 132 eae istorie erar a r reefs, is “as, & ty, tn 19, 20, 317 Se ee Be ee a is, goro ict $ rrip Aioema MA > 113147; 48,49, io eee ae 26, 27, of Eeanthus niyeus e age! gl gee ies å } figures, . . y i . . . Å‘ 28, 29, ‘eigen gained curvi- 54. False Mm. Sk SS 30, SL a. Per per), two figures, id ee ane paps, SS s ), three figures,. > 118158. Sea- 4 wa . ` ILLUSTRATIONS. 5. Sea Ere pema aeii . & "89 90, 91, Museum pests mene mphitrite cirrata, M. ‘ 1, 62, age 271 272| 92. Machilis ? (Spring ta il), 2 277) 95. Premed Ge foe. 278| 96. oe of a bird’s eye (owl), è ae 278| 97, 98. fat * a-beetle, —_ bic sag) 71. Puparium of Eristalis, 278 i res 72, e 4, Hop-vine moth, Hypena hae w ILI 103, ‘108, Moose ick, . i 833/104, 105, poate CEcidium Perberides d (fangi) Bir 63, 64, 65, 66, Chi jronomus, Sea-fly, 67. Larva of Micralymna sa ee ov aeeeve Bont Bi eee 75, 76, 6, Himble-bee moth, Iythia co- 107, 108, Ræstelia lacer: 333) 109. Vertical pce an of a binds e eye (owl) a Ths einoreas (Eudalimia) sub signaria, , 333/110, 111, Head of mosquito, Culex, 587 La Pp Re ae et et, ete aos niveus, 333/112, 113, 114, Larva and pa i of mos- . Col ng s : ge, 81. Collecting sco op, lineola, 82. Fire-beetle of the West Indies, 422/116. Larva of Syrphus fly, ee as 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, Native Fire- “beetles, and their carly wages, » 432 : 412/115. goo i of horse-ly, Tabanus TE = + AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. II.—MARCH, 1868.—No. 1. ene SCRI DOD A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. BY C. FRED. HARTT. SANTA BARBARA DOS ABROLHOS. Tue shore-line, where ocean and land meet, is rarely ever the edge of a continent. Both North and South America have a submerged border, in some places very wide, in others very narrow. Thus, off the coast of New England, the water does not deepen immediately at the shore-line, but the sea-bottom slopes off very gradually, sometimes, the water becoming ever deeper and deeper, until at a distance of many miles from the shore the true brink of the great valley occupied by the waters of the ocean is reached, and Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 1 ER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 2 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. thence seaward the bottom slopes rapidly down beneath the almost unfathomable depths of the ocean. ‘The walls of the continent do not arise perpendicularly from the ocean floor ; they slope, to give greater strength and stability to the structure. As a general rule we know that the water which borders a low coast is shallow for some distance out, the sea-bottom continuing under water with the same general slope as the land. New Jersey is a State whose coast-lands are low and flat, and we find that the sea-bottom bordering it grows very gradually deeper and deeper, in such a way that the true edge of the continent, or of the ocean, properly speaking, lies at a distance of about eighty miles from the land. Just such a submerged border runs along the coast of Brazil, in some places being many miles in width, in others reduced to a very narrow strip; and we find the general rule holds good here as elsewhere, that the deeper water along _ the coast lies off the highest hills, while the flat lands are bordered by shallow water. Professor Agassiz, in one of his New York lectures last winter,* showed how very strikingly alike North and South America are in their general and physical features. Not only is this true, but an examination of the eastern coasts of Brazil and the United States will show that there is a won- derful resemblance in the details of their geological struc- ture. Thus, running all along the eastern coast of the Uni- ted States, we find a range of mountains in which some of the oldest stratified rocks are upheaved, and on the eastern flank of these mountains, south of New York, are low lands occupied by more recent formations, thick beds of sandstone of the Triassic age and beds of marls, ete., of the Creta- ceous; and over these, again, deposits of Tertiary and re- cent times. I take a big Webster’s dictionary, open it a little and * Cooper Institute, February 5, 1867. In his lately publist B “fessor Agassiz has carried out this comparison between the two Americas to a much A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. 3 stand it on edge with the covers sloping like the caves of a house. This book I place before me in such a way that the line of the back will point towards the north-east. This will represent the Alleghany Mountains. Now I take a thinner book and lean its back against the south-eastern side of the dictionary so that it will slope off to the south-eastward, but very much more gently than the covers of the dictionary. This second book will represent much newer strata, which recline against those of the Alleghanies. Among those in New Jersey are thick beds of a coarse red sandstone, the material out of which brown-stone houses are so commonly made in New York City and elsewhere. Geologists call this Triassic or New-Red Sandstone. These beds have been tilted up since they were formed. Now let us take an- other book, and lay its edge just on that of the one last laid down, so that it will lie almost horizontally and much lower than the rest. This will represent newer strata, marls, and sands, etc., of Cretaceous age, which lie still undisturbed in the same position in which they were laid down. Take another book, and lay it so that its edge will overlap that last laid down, and this will represent beds of sands, ete., which were deposited after the Cretaceous, and which geologists call Tertiary strata. These are also undisturbed, and in the same position as that in which they were deposited. As we go southward, the Triassic rocks disappear from view, and the Tertiary beds lap over the Cretaceous, so as to bury them completely. All this will appear more plain from the following figure, which is an Fig. 2. ideal section across the strata of New Jersey, from the moun- tains to the sea. æ represents the upturned beds of gneiss, etc., of the mountains, against which lie inclined the Triassie, or New-Red Sandstone strata, b. Those marked c are Cre- 4 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. taceous, while d represents the latest deposited, or Tertiary beds. Now it is evident that the beds a are the oldest, and were the first disturbed. The Triassic rocks were deposited against them and slightly tilted up, and over these were laid down the beds of the Cretaceous and Tertiary. If I make a similar section across the coast of Sergipe, a little province lying on the coast of Brazil just north of Bahia, from the gneiss hills to the sea, we shall find almost precisely the same structure, as is exhibited in the following section :— Serra dos Aymores, d Fig. 3. a is the gneiss of the coast mountains, and is probably Azoic; b, beds of a coarse red sandstone, precisely like the Triassic, or New-Red Sandstone of New Jersey, and most probably of the same age; c, limestones and sandstones with fossils characteristic of the Cretaceous epoch, such as Ammonites, Inoceramus, etc., and flint. It is worthy of note, that whereas the Cretaceous strata of North America have suffered upheaval and folding only in the west, those of the eastern border of Brazil had been folded and dis- turbed prior to the deposition of the Tertiary strata d, which, occupying a higher level than on the east coast of the United States, everywhere lap completely over and bury the forma- tions which occupy the lower grounds bordering the coast. Southward of New Jersey, as well as in the Mississippi val- ley, we also find the Cretaceous overspread by the Tertiary. In this section e represents beds of sand containing shells, etc., of recent species, which have been raised above sea- level by the late, and probably now-continuing up-rise of the coast. Of this rising of the coast we have at Rio and else- where abundant evidence. One finds the nests excavated by sea-urchins in the rock, six feet or more above high tide- level. At Rio the upheaval amounts to about eight feet. In — A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. 5 North America the last great upheaval was greater in the north than in the south. Facts seem to show that in South America it was just the reverse. About half-way between the cities of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, and distant about forty miles from the mainland, there is a little group of islands, which, lying right in the way of navigation along the coast, and surrounded by dan- gerous reefs, have long been known as the Abrolhos, or * Open-your-eyes” Islands. If we make a section across the country from the coast mountains, which separate the provinces of Minas Geraes and Bahia, to the sea, and then continue it to the Abrolhos, we shall have one like the following : — SierradosAymores 06 b b d b = Abrolhos, d a, Gneiss; b, Tertiary strata; c, Cretaceous strata; d, Coral reefs. In this section the New-Red Sandstone and Cretaceous beds do not appear on the main-land, at least so far as I have seen, and usually, as on the river Mercury, we find the Ter- tiary clays and sandstones lying immediately over the gneiss. But at the Abrolhos Cretaceous rocks appear, for the islands are seen to be composed of beds of shale, sandstone, etc., similar in character to those of the Cretaceous farther north. These islands stand about in the middle of the submerged border of the continent, which is here at least seventy miles wide. This submarine shelf is overspread by Cretaceous rocks, which, at the Abrolhos, have been broken and uplifted so as to form a little group of islands. The Abrolhos consist of four principal islands, and two little islets. These are arranged close together in an irregu- lar circle. Allare quite high, the height of the principal one, Santa Barbara, being 33.22 metres (about 109 feet). This is the largest, and is three-quarters of a mile inlength. On its 6 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. summit is a very fine light-house, whose attendants, three men, are the only human inhabitants of the islands. The strata composing this island are inclined to the N. N. W., approximately, at an angle of 10°-15°, so that the island has Fig. 5. a slope to the northward, while on all , other sides it is precipitous. The sur- , trap, which is spread out over the other Section across island of ees Barbara, Abrolhos, a sales rocks, as is seen in Fig. 5. and ye =, andstones; b» Jt is a wonderful thing to see how rocks decompose and rot away in Brazil. Even gneiss and slate grow soft to a depth sometimes of even a hundred feet. This trap-bed at the Abrolhos is decomposing also, but this takes place in a very interesting way. The trap, which is a very hard and heavy dark-bluish rock, is cracked up on the surface into angular pieces of all sizes, as represented in Fig. 6. If the rock were smooth and un- broken on the surface, it would de- compose only on the upper surface, ik Witter sea in fivouwli these cracks, and each fragment decomposes all around, so that a concentric coating of rotten rock is formed (Fig. 6, b), which may afterward be removed by rains. Thus each piece loses coating after coating like the layers of an onion, becoming ever more rounded in form as this goes on, until at last the surface of the bed is covered over with rounded boulder-like masses, often resembling can- non balls (Fig. 6, a). Nearly the whole surface of the island of Santa Barbara is covered by these rounded masses of trap. The vegetation of the island is very scanty, and, save a Siriba on the island of that name, to which bear company two dwarf cocoa palms, trees there are none. Several species of coarse grass abound, and give sustenance on Santa Bar- bara to a herd of many handteds of goats. There are some thickets of dwarf mimosas, and a few ferns, etc. a face is mainly composed of a bed of A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. z The land animals consist of lizards, of three or four spe- cies, which are considerably numerous. Insects are few, and the principal representative of the class is an immense hairy spider (Mygale), of a species very common-on the coast. This spider, which the Brazilians call Aranha caran- gueija, or crab-spider, has a body sometimes as big as an egg. It exists in countless numbers, living under stones. Almost every loose stone has one of these monsters under it. The bite from its long fangs is very painful and poisonous. It preys on lizards, and has been known to kill young chick- ens, and suck their juices. Sea-birds resort here by myriads, at certain seasons of the year, to breed. Among these there are several species of gulls, pilots, and the magnificent frigate-bird. To these birds and their habits we may, perhaps, by and by devote a special paper. It is in the waters of the vicinity, however, that the great- est riches of animal life are to be found. Fish, of an inered- ible number of species, are wonderfully abundant, and a regular fishery is carried on here from the town of Porto Seguro for a giant perch called the Garoupa, which fish is however cured so badly as to be scarcely eatable. In the month of May, a species of whale ( Megaptera) makes its appearance on this coast in considerable num- bers. It is furnished with whalebone, and has on the back a hump of fat which looks very much like a fin. Above, it is black in color; below, usually white, or light-colored, and marked by longitudinal furrows, which are especially conspicuous under the throat. Along the lower jaws there is a number of round lumps, or tubercular masses of fat, as large as one’s fist. The pectoral fins are long, narrow, and irregular along the edges. This whale grows to be thirty to forty feet in length. Among the first to make their appearance at the com- mencement of the season are large females gee bringing with them their little ones but just born. The 8 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. whalers say that they resort to the islands and reefs for pro- tection. The males are not so numerous, nor are they so valuable to the whaler. I once saw a female swimming with its calf.. The latter swam close alongside its mother, follow- ing all the motions of the latter, and coming up to breathe at the same moment. The whalers all told me that the female holds out her fin obliquely, and that the little one swims with its head between it and the body. They denied that this whale ever clasped the young under the fin. This species is very lively and difficult to catch, notwithstanding which a small fleet of boats stationed at Caravellas captures every year some thirty to seventy whales, which afford a large quantity of oil. These two fisheries, that of the Garoupa and whale, deserve attention on the part of American fisher- men, as they might be developed so as to become very profitable. The whales leave the coast in the latter part of September or in the early part of October. They occur also all along -the Brazilian coast, but Bahia is the only other place at which they are systematically fished. Considerable numbers are caught here every year, and, during the season, one may sit at his breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel in — the upper town, and watch the pursuit and capture of one of these monsters in the bay, almost under his very window. It has long been known that the waters of the Abrolhos and vicinity were made very dangerous to navigation by ex- tensive reefs, which covered large areas just outside of the islands, as well as between them and the main-land. In the descriptions of the Brazilian coast in the various «Coast Pilots,” both English and foreign, that I have seen, very conflicting statements are made with reference to these reefs, some saying that they are composed of coral, others of de- composed gneiss; and the different kinds of reefs are con- fusedly described, so that it is not easy to distinguish, from these descriptions, reefs of rock, reefs of coral, or solidified hes, like that of Pernambuco, which last, being separated from the land by the washing away of the loose sand of the — A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. 9 upper part of the beach, as well as from behind, are left standing like walls of sandstone running parallel to the coast. In scientific books it is generally stated that there are no coral reefs on the coast of Brazil. While engaged in the late Thayer Expedition under Pro- fessor Agassiz, in company with Mr. Edward Copeland, the writer discovered some quite extensive reefs in the bays of Santa Cruz and Porto Seguro, and made out, in a general way, their structure. Fishermen and pilots deseribed the reefs of the Abrolhos as precisely like those at Porto Seguro, and a note in a chart of Lieutenant Mouchez, which after- wards fell into the writer’s hands, left no doubt of the exist- ence of extensive coral reefs in that region. The return of the Expedition left no time for their exploration, but the writer, during his visit to the Brazilian coast last summer, gave them a careful examination. : Many species of polyps grow along the coast of Brazil, even as far south as Cape Frio, and the bay of Rio offers a few insignificant coral building species, principally an As- trangia or two, which form scattered cells on dead shells or stones. There is at Rio quite a number of species of soft- bodied polyps, of the order of the Sea-anemones, and some of these are very beautiful. In the same bay representatives of the highest order of polyps, the Halcyonoids, are not numerous. The most interesting is a species of Renilla (R. Dane Verrill),* a curious family” of polyps, in which all the bodies of the animals are joined together, and clus- tered on one side of a leaf-like expansion, to which there is a single appendage like a stem, by which the whole moves about like a single individual. South of Rio de Janeiro there appear to be few polyps which have calcareous skeletons; but on the rocky shores . northward a few species soon begin to become quite com- mon. eee f my friend, Professor Verrill, for the determination of the Radiates mentioned in this paper. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 2 10 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. In the rocky tide-pools of Os Busos, Guarapary, Victoria, Porto Seguro, etc., to Bahia, we find them quite abundant. There is a massive kind growing in rounded, flattened lumps or patches on the rocks belonging to the genus Siderastraa.* It has small, close-set cells, Said grows in masses often a foot or more in diameter, and occasionally several inches in height, encrusting the rocks. With this there occurs a little, irregularly globular coral, an inch or two in diam- eter, and with large, irregular, crowded cells, in which the radiating plates are very conspicuous (Favia, like ananas Edw. and Haime). In deeper water we find a large Acanth- astrea (A. Braziliensis Verrill)t growing sometimes in — round heads a foot or more in didmetin; together with large — bouquet-like masses, often a foot across, of a beautiful coral (Mussa Harttii Verrill),{ whose branches, thick and long, are cylindrical, forking, radiating from the same point, anil with the cells at the ends of the branches large and deep. There are several other species of hard limestone building * Siderastrea stellata Verrillsp. nov. Corallum forming rounded or hemispherical masses, often flattened above. Cells polygonal, seen large (about .15 inch) deep , the central part rapidly descending. Septa in Bin cycles, those of the first two cycles cote : ariga broadest, all of them evenly crenulated, rather thin, thickness less than the A intervening spaces, slightly projecting, ta inner edge tidy rounded. Columella in- aahhh represented only by one or two tubercles. Wall between the cells repre- sented by a simple line. Trabicular processes between the septa very pen seen from above. Differs from S. radians in having larger cells, which appear more open; 3 thinner septa, “ consequently wider intervening spaces, and four complete cycles — of septa. — A. t Acanthastrea cca mapa A large species, fi siete Rik a setts in diameter; mar; f base s unded by a strong epitheca; cells large, vary g from .3 to .7 of an Sasi in their wiicyn diameter, but mostly about 5 inch, irregu-— iots wand gonal, often much elongated, and then having two or more centres, mode- rately deep (.15 inch), centre depressed, columella but little developed. Septa thin, in fine cycles, the last usually incomplete, aparea subequally, the upper part divided — ree #0 f five long , Sharp | teeth, below which the teeth are smaller and i slender. W ingle, often double with vesicles between. — ABV: t Mussa Harttii Verrill. tiful fi } : branches, and simple, ciieuane cells. Branches wr fer dividing, es 5 to o of an inch in diameter, the living part extending from .2 to .5 of an inch from the sum” ate, and often surrounded by an imperfect epitheca, cove ea oe a trong, subequal Goste, y with numeroTis wiy; nearly equal, recurved spines. rete ne from .5 to 1.2 inches ind rather deep (.4 to 5 inch). marae five cycl t, where they project about .1 of an inch, the upper part aries pia from four to seven unequal, sharp, diverging teeth, with A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. 11 corals. Millepores,* corals often. with flat, ragged-edged branches, like the antlers of an elk, and with very small pores like pin-holes, are not uncommon. In many localities south of the Abrolhos district, these corals grow quite abundantly, but I have no evidence that they ever form reefs or banks. Reef-building corals, ac- cording to the best authorities, flourish only at depths less than one hundred feet. They also require a warm temper- ature of the water. The great shelf of the Abrolhos lies over a very large area, at a depth of less than a hundred feet, and the conditions for the growth of corals are of the most favorable kind. In consequence of this, we find here not only around the islands, but in the shoal, open waters, very extensive reefs and banks, which, in an area of fifty miles square, occupy a space of nearly one hundred and fifty square miles. When the tide goes out, there is seen extending around about one half the island of Santa Barbara, as is shown in the illustration at the head of this article, a fringing reef of coral, out on which one may walk, as on a low wharf at high tide, and from its ragged edge look straight down dditough the limpid green water, and see the sides of the reef and the sea-bottom covered with huge whitish coral-heads, and a wealth of curious things not easily to be got at. The surface of the reef is quite flat, and rises but a short distance above low-water mark. It is rather irregular, and is overgrown with barnacles, shells, mussels, and serpula- tubes, and overspread with large slimy brownish patches, of smaller teeth below. Columella — developed, consisting of slender, loosely ar- ranged, contorted processes.—A. E *The most abundant species is ah eerre nitida Verrill. A very Gating —— Nica tens ecatidet clumps, four t diameter, forking, rounded, or somewhat gio tema Pparanens about Ato 8 inc ch in — e obtuse, rounded, or even clavate at the ends. The larger po ores are small, very ae round, pus scattered over the "e tya distances of about % to ‘lof an inch apart. The small pores are minute, ones, and often showing a téndency to arrange iha around them in circles of six or eight. The tissue is more compact and is—A. E.V. 32 A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. a soft-bodied, encrusting polyp (Corticifera), of a leathery color. The reef abounds in small pools, some of which are shal- low and sandy, others deep, rocky, and irregular. The former often contain scattered corals, Siderastrea and Fa- via, and are rich in small shells, crabs, Ophiure, ete., but the latter are the most interesting. Fancy, my reader, a pool of the purest sea-water held in an irregular rock-basin a few yards across, full of little grot- toes and niches, and three or four feet deep. Carpet this 4 pool with white coral sand and broken shells, and tapestry _ heavily the sides with soft fringes and curtains of delicate, : brilliant-hued séa-weeds. Plant here and there on the rocks clumps of corals and sprigs of Gorgonie, and down deep in this shady corner place a big hemispherical Astreean. Here among the sea-weeds, and just out of reach of the sunbeams, let us plant two or three softly-tinted sea-anemones, just where the translucent, tender, petal-like tentacles of these sea-flowers will be best shown off. And we must not forget 3 to stock our aquarium with a plenty of sea-urchins, pincush- 4 iony little monsters, bristling all over with long dark purple spines (Echinometra Michelini Desor), and each nestled comfortably away in a cavity worn in some incomprehen- sible manner in the solid rock. Here is a little crimson star-fish ( Echinaster) ;* let us half hide him in under the sea- 3 weeds, for it won’t do to make him too conspicuous ; and q here are some queer crabs, that go restlessly prying about — among the sea-weeds, frightening the sea-anemones, and, perhaps, falling a prey to a snaky-armed cuttle-fish, that lurks under some dead coral. Now we must introduce a er errill. Rays short, somewhat angular. Radius of disk .5 of an inch; ofrays1.9. Spines along each edge of the ambulacral grooves in two fh t } ash crowded. thace an a single one on each plate. Spines of inner row much smaller, not half as long, one to each plate. Lower side of ray with a row of distant, large, conical, sharp spines, not extending upon the disk. On back and side of ys there fo ji her irregular tows of similar large, sharp spines, rising from the swollen nodes. It has shorter and more angular rays, coarser structure, larger and fewer spines than Z. spinosus of West A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL. 13 swarm of little, gaily-painted, gilded and silvered fishes, and a crystal jelly-fish ; a host of little shells, half of them ten- anted by hermit-crabs, and swarms of little crustaceans. Now we will wreathe in among the sea-weeds, here and there, the necklace-like, pearly body of a marine worm, and we shall then have an aquarium, wonderfully like those which nature has so liberally strewn over the surface of the Brazilian coral-reefs. Under the dead corals one finds great numbers of a large Ophiura, with a small disk-shaped body, and long snaky arms (O. cinerea Lyman), and by dint of a little patient examination, with the aid of a pocket lens, he may collect hundreds of species of animals from one of these pools alone. At the Abrolhos Islands, I found a few specimens of a large, almost pentagonal starfish, which is very common in the West Indies ( Oreaster gigas Lütken). This also occurs at Bahia, together with a very well-known West Indian shell, quite common as a mantel-piece ornament, and which has the misnomer of Cassis Madagascarensis ! The corals, which go to make up the Santa Barbara reef, are principally Acanthastrea, Heliastrea, Siderastrea, Fa- via, Porites, Millepora. The reef-rock, like that of the reefs, is a compact, hard, white limestone, which appears to show scarcely any organic structure. The corals are so broken and cemented together, that their structure is quite obliterated. The Santa Barbara reef, then, forms a wharf- like structure, partially surrounding the island. It has grown upward as far as possible, i.e. to a level a little above that of low tide, when the corals having died, further growth is stopped. It varies much in width, but in some places it reaches even 400 feet. At the south-west extrem- ity of the island there is a little islet, composed of a pile of boulder-like masses of trap, and known as the “Cemetery,” which at low tide is united to the main-land by this reef. A reef of the same kind is formed around part of the neighbor- ing island of Redonda, and Siriba also has one. THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.* BY SIDNEY I. SMITH. Ir is one of the ever-wise provisions of nature, that every _ land has a vegetation and an association of animals peculiar — to itself, that every sea and every zone of ocean is peopled — with life found nowhere else. There is such a wealth of — conception in the forms of organic life, that there is no need — of their repetition in distant lands. The palms and the reef — corals never wander from the tropics; the humming-birds — are as peculiarly American, as the Mississippi or the Andes. — It is specially the province of modern science to explain the phenomena of nature on known natural laws and forces, and — with this view no phenomena are more interesting than those — of the geographical distribution of species. The subject, in its full extent, would involve a solution of the much-vexed — question of the origin of species; but whether species now — living were derived from their relatives of a former geologi- — cal age, or were independently created, we will not question © in the present article, only taking species when they first appeared as they now exist, and contenting ourselves with — some of the more prominent forces which bind them to pe- a culiar habitats, or tend to diffuse them over wider or differ- — ent areas. q These secondary causes, which act in the geographical dis- — tribution of species, are either inorganic or organic. Of the 4 former the most important are the influences of topography 3 temperature, ocean currents, winds, and humidity ; of the lat- ter, animals themselves, and man,—for in this respect man- must be separated from the mere brute animals as wielding a- very different influence. The inorganic forces are so inte woven, they so act and react upon and limit each other, that one of the subjects assigned inet eines fi th R bet m i g th atrai ata Qatari tific School of Yale College in 1867. as) inat Fiiadoiihndt =? hnti GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 15 they can scarcely be treated singly, and their influences are therefore discussed together ; but the laws which govern the distribution of animals in the ocean are so different from those . which govern the distribution of land and fresh-water spe- cies, that they are best treated separately. The influence of topography in limiting the diffusion of marine species is too evident to require much explanation, and yet, uncombined with the influence of temperature, it would have little effect ; for it is hardly possible to imagine a limit to the migration of species along coast lines and around capes from ocean to ocean, were the temperature of the water perfectly uniform. Still the mere separation of coasts by long intervals of deep water seems to have a direct influ- ence in preventing the migration of certain groups of species ; as, in the Pacific Ocean, under the same lines of tempera- ture,* there are many species, especially of fishes and polyps, which are peculiar to each of the great groups of islands. The influence of temperature has long been recognized as a most powerful cause in limiting the diffusion of marine species. Animals, with very few exceptions, are adapted for life and reproduction only within fixed limits of temper- ature, and a rise above or a fall below these limits, quickly puts an end to their existence. Such limits of temperature act as a continual check upon the effects of ocean currents in transporting species from place to place. Thus the Gulf Stream, flowing from the warm coral reefs of Florida and the Bahamas, must bear myriads of life-germs to the Bermudas and on across the Atlantic toward the Azores; but the iso- erymal line of 68° F., which limits, on both sides of the equator, the reef-building coralst and most of the tropical aoe fact ‘should not be looked that th isot} landi ymal lines indi- d as th very little known of deep ocean tem- , that it is quite possible that some ‘specie s are retarded from descending to a wuiitetent depth to pass from place to Se by the decrease in temperature; still the number of species must be small that c masat even with the same temperature, at ‘very different depths. (Isothermal is u p equa al annual temperature; iso- z T ai " + F; hk TA + +h fth "} Dana, United States Exploring Expedition, Vol. I, Zoöphytes. 16 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. marine species,* passes just north of the Bermudas, and all the germs of tropical life that cross this line must perish. q The marine fauna of the West Indies extends to Bermuda, but, arrived at the Azores, the winter temperature has fallen. to less than 60° F., and we have the fauna of the Mediter- ranean and none of the characteristic Bermuda species. On the other hand, in the Pacific, where the equatorial current flows continuously within the isocrymals of 68° north and 68° — south, there are many species of mollusks, crustaceans, and | echinoderms found from the Sandwich Islands to the coast — of Africa, or through half the circumference of the globe. The mere intervening deep ocean, without connecting islands, might prevent the occurrence of some of the Ber- muda species at the Azores, as in the corals, the young of which probably cannot exist very long without becoming — attached; but even along continuous coast lines, very few species extend through marked changes of temperature. the western coast of America, a large part of the mollusks crustaceans, echinoderms, and some polyps, extend from Lower California to Guayaquil and a few to Paita, Peru, but very few species are common to Guayaquil and to Callao, — only a few hundred miles farther south. The isocrymals of 62° to 68° F. all converge near Cape Blanco, and such change in temperature prevents the interchange of speci between places north and places south of this paints? The insular faunal character of the Americas has been re- marked by many naturalists, —most of the marine species of Ş the Crustacea, excluding the little known Entomostraca, Dana found, viel oremi na re faunal torrid zone and 924 in the temperate zone, only seventy mo two.—U. 8. Expl. Exp., Vol. XIII, p. 1527. As the range of becom por pean the pepara number of species common to the two zon will undoubts te ‘ increased, bu he fact is sufficient to show the great infiuence ! _ tMany of the Peruvian, and some Panamie species, are found at Paita, and mr blending does not a spain distance along the coast, and is what would ‘mp from the warm oe the colder. fedora are species which have their centre of greatest deve the border of a fauna it is nothing more than might th Sant intermediate between that of two faune. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 17 both coasts belonging to peculiar American types,—and yet the shores of America are connected by zones of equal tem- perature with the Central and Western Pacific, and with the eastern shores of the Atlantic. How is this peculiar Amer- ican character preserved? What prevents the interchange of species, if temperature is the great cause which limits their distribution? A glance at the ocean currents shows that none of them leave our shores without undergoing a marked change in temperature, and that none, from other shores, arrive upon them without undergoing a similar change. The Gulf Stream, after leaving the coast of the Southern States and the Bermudas, changes its temperature from 68° F. to 60° before its southern outflow reaches the Azores, and to almost 50° before it arrives on the shores of Europe. The Atlantic equatorial current is formed off the coast of Africa by the union of the returning Gulf Stream, flowing from Southern Europe and the Azores, and the northern current flowing from Cape Good Hope. These currents flow di- rectly from temperate coasts into the torrid zone, which, by their influence, is narrowed down, on the western shores of Africa, to 20° of latitude, while on the American shores it extends through 60°. The antarctic current from Cape Horn flows northward into the warmer waters of the south- ern Atlantic. The antarctic polar current of the Pacific comes north from the frigid regions of the south into the temperate waters, is bent eastward against the shores of South America, and the principal branch flowing north along the coast is turned westward from Cape Blanco or Punta Pa- rina, and, under the equator, still retaining the low temper- ature of the southern waters, sweeps into the torrid regions beyond the Galapagos. The current, flowing from the north along the western shores of the United States, leaves the coast of California and flows southward into the tropics. The frigid regions of North America are, of course, excepted, and the arctic American partake strongly of the character of the arctic species of the old world. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 18 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. How beautifully these material forces act, binding each 4 species to a special home, from which it may not wander and q live. Nature places the bounds, the ocean waters may — sweep by, but they cannot bear along the life which throngs E them. These inorganic causes alone constitute the limits of — faune, and can it be doubted that faune really exist in na- — ture, when it is fully understood that all their modifications q and complications are results of revolutions in these causes 4 themselves? Let us look at some of these revolutions,— — changes in topography, in temperature, and in ocean cur- a voniar-for thus far we have seen only how the diffusion of ocean species is limited by secondary causes. 4 We should begin when the first species of the present 3 faunæ began to appear, and trace the changes to the present ; 4 but the data are very imperfect, and we can get only glimp- ses of these changes, yet enough to indicate some of t effects they have produced in the distribution of species. living in the Tertiary period, when Europe was scarcely more than an archipelago, when the lower Mississippi valley was a part of the Gulf of Mexico, and while Florida and the whole border of the southern Atlantic States were still swept by the waters of the ocean. But these few recent species were not then in their present homes; they have wandered, like the early races of men, southward. The European fossil land faune and flore indicate very clearly a change of climate from tropical to temperate during the Tertiary period, and in the marine climate there was 4 similar change. On the western shores of France, along the vallies of the Loire and the Ardour, there are deposits of f early Tertiary mollusks and echinoderms, a large part them extinct or unknown species, but a small part at least are still living in the Atlantic Ocean. These species not, however, now found on the coast of France, but eig CE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 19 or ten degrees farther south on the coast of Africa, and all the species of these ancient deposits partake of what is now a more southern character. * During the Tertiary period there was a gradual but very ex- tensive elevation of the northern part of the continents. It was during this period that the Alps and the Pyrenees were raised to their present level. The lifting at the north of such masses of land into the cooler regions of the atmos- phere would have had a powerful influence in reducing the temperature of the neighboring seas. As the waters became slowly cooled, the species best adapted to migrate gradually extended their limits southward; on the north, the species were destroyed by the advancing cold, and all those species with little power of migrating, and those easily affected by changes of temperature or other physical causes were wholly exterminated. And thus, on the shores of Africa, still exist the remnants of the ancient Tertiary fauna of the southern European seas, driven from their former home by the ad- vancing cold, but living on through all the changes, even of a Glacial epoch. In North America, the land climate during the early and middle Tertiary was warmer than now, as is indicated by the plants of the lignite beds, and the marine climate undoubt- edly corresponded with that of Europe and with that of the land. In the northern parts of the country no fossil records of the later marine Tertiary are known, but the land faune of the period, the upheaval of the northern parts of both countries, and the changes in the European seas show very clearly that there were similar changes on the American shores. The arctic marine fauna of the earlier Tertiary, while much more land than now was submerged at the north, must _ have been circumpolar in character, and the retreating of species southward from this common point accounts for the occurrence of the same species on the northern coasts of both * Forbes, Natural History of the European Seas. 20 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. continents. Even those few species which are common to q the temperate regions of both oceans or the shores of both — continents, and not now found in the intermediate northern — regions, may have been driven in the same manner south- q ward, until the intervening continent or ocean left the rem- nants of the old cireumpolar fauna widely separated in more — southern regions. Why call to the aid of modern theories 4 the mythical Atlantis to bear species across the ocean, when known climatic changes can have led them gradually from a common home at the north? 1 The marine fossils of the latest Tertiary of Europe, and doubtless of North America also, are very largely living — species ;* and at that time, the climate of the North Atlantic 3 was nearly like that of the present. In the absence of any — knowledge of fossil deposits contemporaneous with the earlier ~ Glacial period, it is impossible to arrive at any definite con- clusions in regard to the geographical distribution of the species at that time.t Still, the number of species which continued to live on through the Glacial epoch, the absence of well marked and extensive glacial phenomena from mid latitudes, and the appearance, in the decline of the Glacial period, of species near their present habitats, are good nega- tive evidence that there was no very extensive southern migration of marine life during that period. iari, i in the “Origin of Species,” supposes the cold of the Glacial period sufficient to have driven the species from the arctic and from the antarctic to the equator, and thus accounts for the similarity of the living species of those re- gions. Such intense cold would have been sufficient to destroy all life in the North Atlantic; and it can scarcely be supposed that species would travel iee far north to the ED es D i a a i a tee ich Crag, Lyel . Bog 2 an slate fer cent or more Primeiples o! Geology, Amer. Edit., p. M3. l ter Tertiary we its compar isor Gi d d bat Ce aiá yee P T R nio a Gai. ill epoch. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 21 equator and back again without leaving some traces behind them. Nor are the faune of the arctic and of the antarctic so closely allied as has sometimes been supposed. There is no well-authenticated instance of the same animal species occur- ing in each of the frigid latitudes, except such as have an intermediate or cosmopolitan existence.* As Dr. Packard} has shown, the submerged beaches give very good evidence that the boreal and arctic regions of North America during the true Glacial epoch, stood at a much higher level above the sea than at present. This ele- vation was undoubtedly enough to raise the submerged bor- der of the continent, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Banks of Newfoundland, and the banks off the coast of Nova Scotia, Maine, and Cape Cod, above the sea-level. As the rise and enlargement of the lands at the north during the Tertiary pe- riod had changed the climate of Europe and the northern parts of North America from tropical to temperate, this elevation during the Glacial epoch must have changed the climate of these regions from temperate to frigid, and brought the snow line down to the coast of New England. Such an enlarge- ment of lands at the north would not, however, change materially the climate of the tropics, and it is altogether probable that the Gulf Stream flowed on and warmed the southern coast as it did in the Tertiary and does now, and that the coral reefs of Florida and the West Indies were then slowly building beneath its warm waters. * Professor Lilljeborg, in a recent paper (noticed i in the NATURALIST, p. 48), in the Trans. Scientific Soc. at Upsala, on Lysianassa Magelianica Milne Edwards, and n some other Crustacea of the sabondar Amphipoda, on the opar of Sweden and | one way, — admitmg that ao species had fodca y o have discovered, in phipod living upon the sept es Norw rwegian pian the Lysianassa Sie poneniae of Milne Edwards. Bate nt wn, however, in the ZoUlogical Record for 1865, p. 330, that the arctic species i ag only specifically distinct from the Zysianassa of Milne Edwards, but that it cannot be yeferred oe that ena er facts show how very diffi- without a direct careful c comparison of specimens, and ee ‘ae pn can be placed in the asi seerd a such animals t Observ n the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador “an Maine. Memoirs Boston Soc. Nat. Meg vai I, Part II. Many of the facts, on several succeeding pages, are drawn almost wholly from this very interesting paper. ® 22 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. The sinking of the lands which closed the true Glacial epoch, carried the coast line higher than it is now, as is i shown by the fossil deposits of the Leda Clays (Champlain q epoch), found along the coast and far up the lower vallies — from Labrador to New York. It might at first be supposciii ] that such a depression would induce a climate even warmer d than the present; but a depression of six or seven hundred — feet would have made islands of New England and Nova — Scotia, and opened a way-for the Labrador current from the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the Bay of Fundy and along the — coast of Maine, and, at the same time, would have allowed a — 4 branch of the current to flow up the valley of the St. Law- rence River into Lake Champlain, and very likely down the valley of the Hudson. Such a surrounding flood of arctic — waters would have reduced the summer temperature of e j The species left fossil in the Leda beds confirm this, and show very accurately the distribution of marine life at the time these beds were formed. The species of the earlier Labrador beds are more purely arctic than the present fauna over the eastern end of Long Island, and across submerg Cape Cod, into Massachusetts Bay. Thus, since ull, or nearly all ee ee ee ee - north to Cape Ann. The southern outliers of the Syrter * Packard, loc. cit., p. 234. tStimpson, Proceedings Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. IV, p. 9, 1851. American Naturalist. Vol. Il. Pl. 1. Sh N M Ae sa Y THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 23 and Acadian faunæ, on the deep water-banks off the New England coast, are thus shown to be relics of the northward migration of these faunæ.— To be concluded. THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. BY A. 8. PACKARD, JR., M. D. In 1799, Schumachoff, a Tungusian hunter, discovered at the mouth of the river Lena a shapeless mass frozen in the ice. But not until two years after, 1801, when the ice had so melted that the tusks and one side of the animal were disclosed, did he know upon what a monster he had stum- bled. Returning to his home on the borders of Lake On- coul, he told his family of the strange creature entombed in the ice. They were seized with consternation, for in the days of yore some hunter had found on this peninsula the same sort of animal, and his family had all died soon afterwards. Death, however, did not invade the household. The god of mammon reigned instead. On recovering from the nearly fatal sickness into which his superstitious fears had thrown him, our enterprising ivory-hunter, led on by the greed of gain, revisited the Mammoth Golgotha, and in March, 1804, favored by the warm weather, beheld the gigantic carcass, now become historic, reposing free from its icy tomb on the sands of the Lena. He sold the tusks for fifty roubles, and the carcass was left to the tender mercies of the people about, who fed their dogs on the flesh, while “wild beasts, such as white bears, wolves, wolverenes, and foxes also fed upon it, and the traces of their footsteps were seen around.” The skeleton remained entire, except one foreleg, which some unusually enterprising white bear probably lugged off. essor R. Owen, whose account we have been using, states that, — 24 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. «According to the assertion of the Tungusian discoverer, the animal, — was so fat, that its belly hung down below the joints of the knees. This — mammoth was a male, with a long mane on the neck; the tail was much mutilated, only eight out of twenty-eight caudal vertebre remaining; boscis was gone, but the places of the insertion of its muscles were visible on the skull. The skin, of which about three-fourths were saved, was of a dark gray color, covered with a reddish wool, and coarse long black hairs. The dampness of the spot where the animal had lain so long had in some degree destroyed the hair. The entire skeleton, from — the fore part of the skull to the end of the mutilated tail, page six- teen feet four inches; its height was nine feet four inches. The tusks measured along the curve nine feet six inches, and in a straight line jas the base to the point three feet seven inches. “Mr. Adams collected the bones, and had the peeps to find the other scapula, which had remained, not far off. He next detached the — skin on the side on which the animal had lain, which was Loa preserved; the weight of the skin was such that ten persons found great difficulty in “— transporting it to the shore. After this, the ground was dug in different a ee eee OLE ae yore es Perey nr T ST a while devouring the flesh, and more than thirty-six pounds’ weight of hair was thus recovered. The tusks were purchased at Jatusk, and the whole expedited thence to St. = aa ue skeleton is now mounted in the museum of the Petropolitan Academ The Mammoth (Elephas barge Blum.), did not — dwell alone in Siberia. A hairy Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros — tichorhinus), which had a length of eleven and one-half — feet, was found frozen in Siberia near Wilui in 1777. ranged from England and Middle Europe to Siberia. ! the living species of elephants, the Mammoth not only browsed on the leaves of the spruce and fir, but ground beneath the broad surfaces of its immense grinders boughs of considerable thickness. It has been objected, despite its hairy coat, fitting it for the rigors of a Siberian winter that the Mammoth could not have been indigenous to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, since the vegetation was 50 scanty; but Professor Owen sets aside such objections, observing that “forests of hardy trees and shrubs still grow upon the frozen soil of Siberia, and skirt the banks of the: Lena, as far north as latitude 60°. In Europe, arboreal veg- *Owen’s British Fossil Mammals and Birds. THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 29 etation extends ten degrees nearer the pole, and the dental organization of the Mammoth proves that it might have derived subsistence from the leafless branches of trees, in regions covered during a great part of the year with snow.” We may, with this learned author, assign the northern limit of trees, which even at some points reaches the seven- tieth parallel of latitude, as the bounds to the wanderings northward of the Siberian Mammoth. <A few years previous (1796), Cuvier announced that the bones of elephants found scattered through the Quarternary deposits, or Post-tertiary sands and clays, and the upper Tertiary deposits, belonged to a distinct, as well as extinct species. This fact suggested to him the idea of the existence of former worlds and succes- sive creations of species, and from this moment the science of Paleontology took its place in the sisterhood of sciences. The bones of the Mammoth and the mastodon, the rhino- ceros and hippopotamus were shown to belong to extinct species which formerly roamed over the surface of Southern and Middle Europe, and not, as his opponents contended, of luckless inmates of Roman menageries, or less likely, as others alleged, of heathen giants sixty feet high, who lived in the age of fable. Organized research, led by the great French Palzontolo- gist, established the fact that the Mammoth was indeed once an abundant animal in Europe. This huge elephant, with its» cousin, the mastodon (Mastodon angustidens), a still larger genus of elephants, differing in the structure of the teeth, was common in Middle and Southern Europe ; the species of both genera, like the elephants of the present day, enjoying a wide geographical range. The Mammoth ranged from the fortieth to the sixtieth parallel of latitude. Lartet, one of the founders of a new science, Anthropology, has brought forward additional proof of the former existence in Middle Europe of the Siberian Mammoth, and that from the most startling sources. In May, 1864, this pei perap with his countryman AMER. NATURALIST, VOL 26 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. Vernueil and an English naturalist, Dr. Falconer, visited the 4 cayes of Perigord in the department of Dordogne, France, — and discovered, in the soil and debris in the bottom of these — caves, various sketches of animals carved on pieces of deer’s 1 horns and elephant’s ivory. 4 We copy from an account of the discoveries made by Lar- tet and Christy (prepared by the great Danish naturalist and d archeologist, Professor J. Steenstrup, for a Danish Natural — History J ournal, published at Copenhagen),* drawings that 3 rival in interest the Rosetta Stone, specimens of Egyptian and Assyrian sculpture, or the remains of Aztec art. Fig. 1_ T \ ay wy Vb ih an elk, allied to our moose ; and Fig. 3 unmistakably pieta the head of the wild boar. The reader may puzzle OV * Tidsskrift for populaere fremstillinger af me pa Udgivet af ©. og C. F. Lütken. 3d ser., Vol. IV, Kjébenhayn. See al r account of these d ies, Vol. I, p. 274, taken from the Quarterly Journal of Balida, London igure of a Hairy Mammoth engraved on a piece of elephant’ i irory, $ we = the Madelaine Cave in the department of Doria, France. se Figure of a Hairy Mammoth y, found in the Madelaine caye. 28 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. duced, and lo, an off-hand sketch of his trophy of the chase by some prehistoric Cummings or Baker! d As specimens of earliest art they are certainly creditable 4 and almost rank with drawing of animals represented in As- syrian, Egyptian, or Aztec art, at least surpassing the hiero- — glyphics of the North American Indians. The peculiar shape of the head of the Siberian Mammoth, with its characteristic — up-curved enormous tusks, and trunk hanging down at ease, — and the hairy mane, which no living species of elephant pos- — sesses, evince a quick eye, excellent perceptive powers, and — an artistic touch given by the prehistoric artist, which cer- tainly discovers the germs of dawning art in the Cave- dwe : ers of France. : From portions of several skulls and a single lower jaw of l q man found in the caves and gravel-beds of Europe, anato- | mists of high authority have, we cannot but think too hastily, — referred their possessors to the most degraded of savage races.” The bas-reliefs and inlaid sketches of our cave-dwellers rather ally them, from the evidence of their art-remains, as a very high authority, Professor Steenstrup suggests, to the tribes of Eastern Asia. He states that Chamisso, the Italian graphic copy, published in the PEDE Popular Journal of Natural History, reduced oe balt, lyi rom Lartet’s original wing. arq di 1, on the banks of the Vésère in Dordogne, another engraving of the Mamm sashes IA y DA slate. In speaking of the accuracy of the sketches he says, “ The artists of the A ugerie bave made no carica- tures, and Gealed ltt e to the fan cifal. If the rough sketches of art in its first steps seem to ; ru lously respected. I will cit j; h th es with a few strokes a combat of the reindeer. _ The victor is s repres eta the truthfulness of which is sı y as isan A dof the reindeer obtained also in one of the stations of the Augerie. In view of such facts it seems to be inadmissible to suppose, that, in te a purely fanciful drawing of head, an aboriginal should have precisely reproduced that of an y thes of which we have constantly foun ound the e remains in the same > conditions « of burial; and ters of a proboscidian of whose existence he was ignorant.” — nnal: Scien Naturelles, 5e ser. T. 4, p. 361. 1865, $ nm oe as primitive folk have been lar-science writers, the unkindeat blow of all has been dealt by the Rey. D. I. Heath London n the Anthropological Review, April, 1967. Readily accepting the su pposed ape-like form race, he gravely propounds the theory that the “ ne pe ane were THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 29 traveller, describes in his “Voyages,” the expertness of some tribes of North-eastern Asia, in drawing figures of animals on walrus tusks and the teeth of the sperm-whale. In an evident zeal to make these people a connecting link between man and the apes, have not some writers exagger- ated, on rather slight data, the degraded and savage char- acter of these primitive folk? Have not geologists also exaggerated the geological age of the Stone period, carrying it too far back, and also not bringing it near enough to historic times? In the first flush of the interest excited by these startling developments, they also have demanded too great a cold for the climate of Middle Europe. Associated with these Mammoth bones and drawings were sketches of an animal like the Irish elk, which historical evidence tends to show existed up to the fourteenth century ; of the reindeer, which Cesar refers to in his Commentaries, which Boyd Dawkings thinks must have lived in Northern Scotland as late as the twelfth century, and which remained in Denmark up to the sixteenth century ; of the bison, which still survives in Lithuania, the urus, au- rochs, or Bos primigenius, which is said to have lingered in who were taught to speak by men of the ines race who shared the land with them, or, as the December number of Blackwood has Phothropoliogie say, after man had n birth, One we and graced with articulate ymi eech. 1d k. and could build d ld pl h : F gn, fth And knew most of the arts ? 1 } middens AICHeN-M1acens, eect fit but to do their superior’s bidiines. So an Ary REO enlighten thers, On the Mutes of the “Midd ens he burst with sat, And attempted to teach them the sylable Pa. The rather infantile science of the prensa he sacar peti stn into easy verse, does not state whether Aryan implements and r ave been found in the Kjekenmed- dings. But thus far has any piere of an “intermixture ‘ei two races, one so much higher than the other, been fou Age? We shall wait pa- tiently for a few pertinen t facts ; tinea in these days of equal rights, advocating Kjekenmedding sree b elieving that they were born with all the cir senses and faculties such as they w d Lapland allies or representatives oe later times. 30 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. ‘Switzerland up to the sixteenth century, and the wild boar, still abundant in Central Europe. : The Mammoth, then, was hunted in middle Europe by a hardy race of men (the Reindeer Folk), savage, it is true, but who wielded the spear, and shot flint-headed arrows at the enormous beasts they hunted; and, resting from the fatigues of the hunt, engraved on ivory* the animals slai by them with a sort of hard-pointed style; whose wives probably made garments of skins sewed with delicate bone needles, and whose families seemed to have been well housed *t In the working of bones, we pe reals ae ce rd a the reindeer, these Reindeer men oer » a Ne RS ce ws w-heads with barbs, knives, and daggers, 3 ing the por and similar objects, awls and needles of considerable fineness, with oe 5 fit for the passage of a thread; handles found 1 a quanti ity, and some unfinished Specimena roai the troublesome mode “ The art products of the Reindeer Pads who inhabited France are of particular in- terest, The decorations on many pots and implements, CETT, a simpe sity angular, or c: cei lines, exhibit a SENA sense for beau mals, as ovri by MM. Lartet and Garrigou, are still avin surprising. ener by M. Gar upon the s of the bone, and it may be seen that the — in working it, tw the bone in various directions, some ar the lines showing a flat inside turned su . Many of these drawings are known to the public by the treatises of Lartet and Ch on the caves of Perigord; but I can, from m n inspection, assert that there exist that eee many i others, | and these highly eina stic., Thus S = my frien aster cas found in a heap of bones oftl eala period, at at Madelaine, n pear Tursac (Dordogne). Ti is a kind of kitchen-mi¢ at the foot of a br and two and a métres thick. In th iddl I i were found. Oa of these pieces broken-off femur of a swan, The animal d 1 upon it has a short thick tail e along the back, imitating somewhat rudely the aspect of the reindeer in s mmer, m , Whilst the belly prey the short dark — hair, _ Some short lines before the forefoes na pig resent hair of th e throat. SUEUR of Lag femu VI a tibia. p Te eg following each other (?), the one being known by its meee: lers. Further re iigrsice will, no doubt, increase our treasury of art products of 7 —(VOGT.) THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 31 in caves and rock-shelters and rude huts, at a period long before the first dawnings of history. So far from being lower than Australians and Hottentots, they may have been the ancestors of the Calmucs and Fins and Lapps. Living near glaciers which descended into the plains of France down the slopes of the Alps and Pyrenees, which brought Alpine and ice-inhabiting animals close to their hunting grounds, they yet chased the boar through the forests, the elk through the morasses and grassy inter- vals, and pursued the iio the roe, the chamois, ibex, Pyrenæan deer, and, most abundant of all, the reindeer, over the snow-fields lying ọn the hills and uplands; and in the lower plains and valleys watched by night, made hideous by the cries of the cave-hyena, for the Mammoth and mastodon, the cave-bear, the lion, tiger, and tichorhine rhinoceros, as they came from their retreats to slake their thirst at the river bank. Professor Carl Vogt, in “The Primitive Period of the Human Species,” translated for the Anthropological Review, has given the most recent and more moderate views regard- ing the Stone Folk. With Lartet and Christy he divides the Stone Age into two periods: first, the “ Cave-bear epoch, distinguished by large, now extinct, species of beasts of prey and pachydermata, rude flint implements, coarsely worked bones, and long cranial forms of a strong race of men;* and second, the Reindeer period, characterized by the + leav fr li ade, to form conclusions respect- P ervilization of this long-headed podem from sha Neander skull), powerful, tall, and strong primitive man, who liv ed by the sice s ee cave-bear and the mam- m no, we perc ei ve that S dy then he y burying them, Lage 4 with slabs; and mid the furnished t meat and arms for their pieg into another world. He kn nah the use ar bate aco structed hearths Daag he roasted his meat: gi of pottery th e broke the long Tones the larger animals in a systematic manner, ka aia er to apl a the marrow; and also ga skull to obtain the pram. His implements or weapons con- sist of rude hatchets and kniv: hich k off from a flint block by another Stone; and of worked bones, pao: for. han andles, arrows, vlubs, or awls. Such pieces as as look like pike or strow- “heads never show any grapp ple-hooks, but smooth ciliary Bacchi theless end dt his p with perforated pieces 32 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. northern fauna of a cold climate, by hammered stone wea- pons, carved and artfully decorated bones, and the short skulls of a small and more delicately constructed, buts at sii events, a very intelligent art-endowed race of men.’ But is it not possible that the two races lived contempaii raneously? The Reindeer Folk may have inhabited the upper valleys and hills near the Alps and Pyrenees, which send spurs into Southern and Central France. They were, perhaps, mountaineers, and the animals associated with them, ) and most characteristic of the period, were alpine -a l; northern species. Like the Lapps and Fins, the men were dwarfed, and more delicate; and perhaps more active-minde od and ingenious than the Flint Folk. So far from dwelling 7 exclusively in caves, they may have lived in skin lodges in summer, and in wooden or snow huts in winter. ) Their neighbors, the Flint Folk, or Lowlanders, a taller and stronger race, meantime inhabited the plains of Northern France and Belgium, England and Germany, and the fauna was made up of the Mammoth, mastodon, and rhinoceros, horse, cave-bear (which was much more abundant than with the Reindeer people), bison, aurochs, and deer, which in- habited the more genial and fertile plains. Taking this view, the supposed great length of the Stone Age is much reduced ; it explains how two such dissimilar races lived side by side, just as the Lapps and Fins lived. joré centuries since, not far from the Celts and Ta mountainous parts of Europe and the borders of Asi ie while the climate was colder on the highlands, on plains of Middle Europe it was, probably, much as descri by Tacitus and Cæsar. of coral and the teeth of wild animals. He probabi red b ; for the awls and need m teia y dressed in skins or pee ve arn such materials, but not A at pe Fe Ww respecting food. that he from the Alps; whether in a s possession of or various ty will only be decided when we are a greater number of skulla,” ei Sess 7 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 33 In our own Jand the Mammoth was associated with the Mastodon giganteus. Herds of the Siberian Mammoth found their way across Behring’s Straits into Alaska, as their re- mains occur in the greatest abundance at Eschscholtz Bay. The explorations of Mr. W. H. Dall show how common it must have been to the southward in the Yukon Valley. It seems to have extended southward in America as far as the parallel of 40°, as remains, found at several localities in Can- ada, have been referred to this species. Professor Leidy has claimed, on partial evidence (a com- plete skull not having yet been found), the existence of a truly American species of elephant (Elephas Americana), representing in the new world the European and arctic Hairy Mammoth. This species replaced, in the warmer parts of our country, the Siberian elephant. Its remains, like those of the mastodon, are found at the bottom of swamps and in the upper strata of river sands. It should be borne in mind by the reader, that these deposits of river alluvium are the most recent of the deposits of the post-tertiary age. They should not be confounded, as they often are, with the true glacial or drift deposits, which were thrown down at an immensely earlier period, so far as known facts teach us. In the Northern States, at least, we had the following succession of events antedating the appearance of the Amer- ican elephants,* including the mastodon, though this does not preclude their existence southwards, where the climate was hotter. The warm climate of the latest Tertiary (Plio- cehe), in which the temperature of New England and the Northern States may have been like that of the Gulf States at the present day, gave way to the arctic cold that brought with it the snows and glaciers of the true Glacial epoch, the period which separates the Tertiary from the Quarternary *UThe A ilk ia, Texas, and Mexico pes en south, to Canada on the north, and to Oregon and California on the w species ap- pears to have been most abundant to the south, in the hates i pi caeioe a warmer climate than Elephas primigenius.” —(DANA.) AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 5 ever, seem to have been very much the same. The -~ home of the earth-shakers was the Sivalik Hills at the foo 34 THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. periods. For ages the Ice King held sway over this im- mense territory. The walrus, and perhaps the musk-ox, the ~ white bear and arctic fox occupied the land that had perhaps — shook beneath the tread of the Megatherium and Boothe- rium, the American lion and the mastodon and elephant; and the creeping willow and procumbent birch and lowly - cranberry, the snow white Arenaria greenlandica, and other arctic plants succeeded the gaudy flowers and luxuriant for- ests of the latest Tertiary soil. Centuries after, the continent slowly sinks, perhaps si hundred feet; the sea laves the foot of the White Mout tains; the temperature is raised and the glaciers have re-— treated to the Alpine valleys. This is the period of tl Leda clays, in which bones of the bison and walrus are found. But not until a later and still warmer period, that oi the rearrangement of these sands and clays into lake shores and fertile river intervals, does the Mammoth (so far as fos sil evidence goes) seem to have flourished abundantly. The remains of the mastodon, found lately in Indiana am stored in the museum of the Chicago Academy of Scienet occurred in a peat-swamp four feet beneath the surface, ove a bed of marl containing fresh-water shells. This wil swamp had been flowed by the beaver, as its dam and eY dences of its lakes were still remaining. Indeed, there ar accounts, which however need confirmation, of mastodom bones being found in the Western States, associated Ww! arrow-heads and other Indian relies, as if the creature ha been mired in some “lick,” and killed by Indians. Wes eagerly look for fresh discoveries in this direction by Western naturalists. The mastodon seems to have bee? more abundant in the Middle States than the Mammot The habits and geographical range of the two animals, m= the Himalayah Mountains, seven fossil species of eleph and three of mastodons having been found there, besides THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 35 living species of elephant. A species of mastodon inhabited the Pampas of Brazil, the bones having been found in the bone-caves near Rio, and the Mastodon Humboldtti lived in the Andes. The Mastodon giganteus lived on the spruce and fir trees. The food of the tropical existing species is well known to consist of the leaves and succulent branches of trees. It must seem strange to many of our readers to have had introduced, as a characteristic feature in our landscapes of prehistoric times, herds of wild elephants much exceeding in size the tamed imported specimens that march servilely through our towns and villages. How would the children of to-day grin and wonder with patriotic glee should a squad of veritable American elephants stalk through the gaping throng! Such fortune fell only to the lot of the pre- historic dohin. What glorious times were those when the children of the Mound-builders perhaps trooped on gala days of antediluvian rejoicing, to see trained lions and learned horses exhibit in the circus of those days (if the Preadamites were circus-goers) ; saw the megatherium fed, the hunger of the megalonyx and mylodon appeased with small forests of saplings, and—crowning delight of all—rode on the backs of docile Mammoths and more than elephantine mastodons !* * These animals may possibly have been in America contemporaries of the earliest races of men, as some of the species or allied forms are now proved to have been in rope. Professor J. Marcou states that jaah bones have been found pigs in the bone- beds of the Natchez quarternary deposits, or in een lying over the: Regarding the sareman whether man was really contemporaneous with the Ma beh and the m ternary mi ammals, Professor Dana — legate tiy North America there are no know Professor Pann i in his SE of Geology, cites, among the characteristic mammals of this period in North America, the great beav ver (Castoroides Ohioénsis), the Bison latifrons Leidy, a sponge ns ter arger than the e existing neni and a genus of ox (Bootherium) related to the musk-ox. A species of sta g (Cervus Americanus Leidy), larger than the so Trish Elk, and the American Post- tertiary eal pares sore Leidy), about as large as the fossil lion of Britain. Other gigantic mammals, such as the Mega- lonyzx and Megatherium and ey inhabited the Gaa Valley, as their bones are found associated in the famous N. n a brs locality with remains of the horse, at es 8 an nd mastodon » now w known e been a resident of North and South voyages. REVIEWS. ipsa Tue POPULAR Science Review. London (Quarterly). The October number contains a very valuable and beautifully illust z ted article on the Microscope in Geology by David Forbes, of which we make use on another page. — Dr. M. T - growth in the leaf itself, is the most important, and probably the only one of itself sufficient to produce the result.” This new growth is thus described from Von Mohl’s account. “ Shortly before the fall of the leaf, there begins to be formed a very delicate layer of cells, growth of which is from above downwards, so that, beginning the axillary side of the leaf, and gradually extending downwards and outwards, nearly at right angles to the long diameter of the cells of the leaf stalk, at any rate at right angles to the plane of the leaf, it ef a gradual separation between the stem and the leaf, as effectually knife would do.” These changes of tissues and consequent fall of leaf are not wholly due to a change of seasons “ from wet to dry, or hot to cold, for it not unfrequently happens that if a tree be stri of ‘its leaves in summer, it forms during the autumn new ones, W remain on the tree during the greater part of the winter, or at any until long after the usual period.” Dr. E. R. Lankester gives a very useful article, well illustrated, on Flat-worms or Planarians. The subjoined table* presents the la views as to the classification of Worms taken from Peter’s and Ca SE POM ol ADETA AA ETE E E *A TABULAR VIEW OF THE CLASSES AND ORDERS OF VERMES. Sub- Vermes. Class I. Annulata (Ringed-worms). ‘ ; Orders: Polychaeta (Marine), (Land and Fresh-water). Discophora (Leeches). Class II. Gephy esha ag ii k én Tahi 5 + Orders: Sipunculus, etc. Class III. Rotifera (connected to Arthropods and Turbellaria). Orders: Cephalotricha (Wheel-animals). pe ews: and Nemertians). ematodes (Flu King’s Yellow-worms Cestodes (Tape-worms). e REVIEWS. 37 Handbook of Zodlogy (Leipzig, 1863). We might say, however, that the more conservative zodlogist would substitute class for sub-kingdom, and order for class, considering the worms as a class of the “ type,” “ branch,” or “‘sub-kingdom” ARTICULATA. Such tabular lists of different classes of the animal kingdom we design to give from time to time in the NATURAL- Ist. The Rotifera, or Wheel-animalcules, placed by Dana and other au- has been aonr by Dugés, who, by slicing them with scissors, produced individuals with double heads and tails, and sioa modifications of form. The curious modes of reproduction are thus n The Turbellarians propagate either by eggs deposited and fertilized in the water, several eggs being often de ted in one mass of yolk (like what was observed by Dr. Carpenter in grow A in a larva gages which is ped unlike R ‘parent, and from me DONS SY which a last case is very nenas to that observed by Johannes Mueller in Sites star-fishes, As int Echinoderms, so in n the Turbellarians,. there a appears to be no rule a me method of Jeren opment; nearly di liti a larval st: ‘ni and th Dr. Richardson writes on ‘the Physics of the Brain, A concludes J E +} a 3 or ganglia are determined, ‘‘that impressions are physical realities, stamped as it were on brain matter, each distinct and perfect when the matter on which it is set is in condition for motion. Everything we remember is, I doubt not, thus imprinted on the brain, on infinite points of brain-substance, each ee fre, a capable of motion when the whole mass is charged with fi The ' brain, in fact, is a world within of the world without that it par received in the course of its waking life.” When we see what the micro-photographer can thus do in putting physical Te on what seem infinite: tesimal points of matter, and when we know that there is no as limit to this art, it i e of the gray matter ree bai Inos cerebral lobes or which Tave spoken, mpenes ‘ot points i matter are thus ” up. One more fact relating to the physics of the brain, as taught by experiment, and I have done. We have seen that when the anterior cerebral ganglia are destroyed for a time, an À d he bell rward, hat, m the cere the moves impulsively backwards. indicates the existence of a balance of power between t ; a balance which is also detectable between other centres. It ery centre of power in the brain is, during healthy states, 38 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. physically balanced, and th that what is called a well-balanced mind is really a'‘prope rly balanced brain. yes reading we explain many phenomena of living cae otherwise ea Among the reviews, a kindly word of welcome is given the NATU ist. —MM. Bert and Blondeau have been experimenting on me conte tions of the Sensitive Plant :— M. Biond experimented on plants with the induced gal lvanic pitch of a Ruhmko coil. He EA three plants to the influence of the electric current. The first was op rated on for five minutes; the plant when left to itself seemed prostrated, but after a while ( arter ), the leaves opened, to recover i The s for ten minutes his specimen was prostrate for an 2 , after which it slo recovered, The third specimen wied galvanized for eiA -fiye minutes, but i never recov ered, a plant ae by lightn A fou nt was et rized, and pos ee the urrent. Strange to say the arth a not ar effect, the Ar remained st ht and open; prin proving, de M. Blonde A that the mo of contraction of the leaves of kas sensitive plant is in some way allied to e muscular co traction of animals, NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. BOTANY. MONSTROUS FLOWERS OF HABENARIA FIMBRIATA. — Mr. W. W. Den low, of New York, found last summer a spike of this orchid with all tl flowers abnormal, spurless, and fringeless. A few of the flowers, exs ined by me, exhibit the sarafan peculiarities. Al of them are dimero even to the ovary. The most reduced has the perianth simply of sepals, anterior and Sn. and the anther and stigma nearly no occasionally somewhat petaloid, but oe one or both the cells W formed, although more separated on the petaloid connective; the pol and the gland nearly normal. In one flower the two opposed anthers actly similar, and nearly normal, but with the slender tip of the Cè more curved, so that the glands which are contiguous in pairs, are! turned. The stigma is central and symmetrical. In more than one flo there is an attempt at a second pair of anthers, within and alternate | the others; one of these is occasionally well formed, and the other ri mentary.—A. Gray. ; Fjo C. ) AS A NATIVE PLANT.—The respon to our inquiry are generally in favor of the lie, en: The most ! plicit testimony received, however, is the following, from our exe correspondent, Mr. M. S. Bebb. He writes: “I never saw Sam Canadensis out of a fence corner; but my father who was born in $ ern Ohio in 1802, and who remembers distinctly the first White and F ~ Clover, Blue Grass, and Black Mustard he ever saw, —he lived in the b woods nine miles from any settlement, when Cincinnati and Mé NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. _ 39 were mere hamlets, — declares that the Elder was abundant on the islands of the Dry Fork of the White-water River, in the earliest ee of the country; that he remembers very distinctly making ‘ of its stems when tapping sugar-trees, and that it was a great pest in low bot- tom-lands, and had to be eradicated with much labor when clearings were ade.” — A. GRAY. GERMAN Ivy, SO-CALLED, FLOWERING UNDER PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES. —Mr. L. H. Brown, of Dayton, Ohio, informs us that bran ches of this delicate climber, cut in October, were carried into re house and hung around picture-frames upon the walls of a room in which, until winter set in, there was no fire. In about three weeks they began to put forth blos- soms, which have never been seen upon the plants growing in soil, and they have kept on blooming for several weeks, the vine growing freely. The old shies soon withered, but those of new shoots took their place. GRA PEDEZA sTRIATA Hook. and Arn. The notice in the November num- plant is attracting much attention. Bot r. Ravenel and Professor Por- ter call Dr. Gray’s notice to the fact, that they sent specimens to him twenty years ago. The Rev. Dr. Curtis writes that the new comer, if we may call it so, has reached Charlotte, North Carolina, where it is a perfect God-send, taking complete possession of the worn-out fields, and is cropped by cattle with such avidity that a good specimen is hardly to “I have read with great interest the note of Dr. Gray concerning the nce, wish to put on record the fact, that, twenty-one years ago, in August, 1846, I collected the specimens, now in my herbarium, in Mon- ticello, Jasper County, Central Georgia. It grew in piae nook by the side of a road, at some distance sae the village and any human habita- tion. I never dreamed of China and Japan, sah have foc regarded it as a native waiting for a name.” —T. C. Por RELIC OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. —On the south bank of the River stone, identical with that of the valley of the Connecticut, as shown not only by its lithological characters, but also by the fossil footprints which it contains. On the faces of the cliffs are several enre water-drips, and at two or three points they are penetrated by na and shallow ravines, down which rivulets come leaping. At these ein ais ice accu- mulates in immense masses during the winter, and lies ae. until late in the spring. This was observed whilst passing along 40 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. on the opposite side of the river, and the inference drawn that the mean 4 ] annual temperature of the rock would be so reduced by the slow melting ` of the ice, and the large amount of evaporation in summer, as to aiford q favorable conditions for the growth of northern plants.” In hope of find- = ing something of the kind, the spot was visited on the eighteenth of May, — 1867, in company with Professors Green and Hitchcock, of Lafayette Col- lege, and our search was rewarded by the discovery of Sedum Rhodiola D. C.,-—an inhabitant of high latitudes in Europe and America, its near- est known station in our country being Quoddy Head, on the eastern AN northward at the close of the glacial epoch, it was left behind. | Far up on the ledges of the rock, chiefly under the drip of the water, it — grow aaa tufts, whose pale, glaucous hue attracts the eye of the © pitt, in situations so difficult of access, and in such abundance, that ` it bids fair to maintain its hold as successfully for ages to come, as i for ages past. It may not be amiss to state also that in New Jersey, ten miles to the north of aie cliffs, Polemonium ceruleum L. has been recertly detected in a large, shaded, sphagnous swamp, he it is evidently indigenous; and that, a few miles farther on, in the s: range, occur other northe DSa among which are Bidens Beckii mice Lobelia Kalmii L., Betula pum .- and Carex fava L.—T. C. PORTER. “8 PoLyPorus FRONDOsUS.—A specimen of this enormous fungus W recently exhibited at one of the Horticultural Society Exhibitions at — Bos It was found growing on the decayed stump of an oak tree in so that the plant resembles an umbrella, the sticks of which are replaced by a serried mass of vertical tubes, on the ap aphass of which gro the reproductive dust called spores. The P. frondosus produces its pile in side growths, which look HE thick, fleshy leaves, and hence the spe cific name. Many of these eccentric species grow to an enormous size. The speci- men referred to was four feet in circumference. A specimen of P. gigan- ! teus, collected in Forest Hill Cemetery some years ago, was over five feet in circumference, and weighed ten pounds. — C. J. SPRAGUE. e NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. Al Tue Torrey FESTIVAL. — The Botanical Club of New York has been for some time engaged on a catalogue of the plants growing within thirty miles of New York city. A catalogue, embracing the same territory, was ry twentieth of December. Invitations were extended to those who had prominently identified themselves with American botany, and the club wishes us to say that they used all possible diligence to invite all inter- ested, and if there were any omitted, it was from inadvertence. The day was unfortunately one of the most inclement of the year, and the impedi- ments to travel prevented many from coming from abroad. Among the guests were Professor Gray and Dr. Pickering, of Cambridge; Professors Eaton and Brewer, of New Haven; Professors Porter and Green, of Eas- ton, Pa.; Thomas P. James, of Philadelphia ; S. T. Olney, of Providence; C. F. Austin, Closter, N. J.; S. B. Parsons, of Flushing; and I. Bu- chanan, of New York. All present were furnished with a button-hole co . After the substantials had been disposed of, Professor Thurber gave the following ADDRESS. For some occult reason I have been placed in a position where I am to speak for the Botanical Club of New York. It is indeed a pleasure to meet such a number of botanists, and my first duty is to express the thanks of the club to those who have come from abroad at this inclement season to aid us in our festivities. The incentive to this genial gathering is so well understood, that any elaborate remarks are fortunately unnec- essary. On December 22d, 1817, there was presented to the Lyceum of Natural History, ‘‘A Catalogue of Plants growing spontaneously within so important to botanical science, not only in America, but in the world. Here I must correct an error of the printed invitations, which are made to say that this is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the cata- logue. The title-page bears the date of 1819, and an explanatory adver- tisement says, “ Although the following pages were reported as early as Dece te tion, rather than that of its presentation. Such are assured that the club will consider the subject in season for the centennial anniversary. This little volume is now so rare, that I have brought it here, in part be- AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 6 _ thona:of new Grasses from the Rocky Mountains : 42 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. cause it may be of interest to some to see it, but mainly because its timed 3 Iam aware that on occasions like the present it is customary for the | speaker to assume that the hearers are quite in doubt as to the person 3 spoken of, and to relieve their minds only at the close of his speech, by i announcing the name of the one who has been eulogized. Unskilled iz a pap jaian of ar table orator, and quite sure of being unable to keep 4 a state of suspense, I go directly to — point and say =p author of the catalogue is Doctor Jonn Torr e look through the pages of the ee we are astonished at its se or and wonder that a mere youth could a accomplished the. eut amount of preparatory labor necessary to the 7 In imagination we can look back over the attak on half century, a see the young enthusiast PSOEn in localities that are to be found. only in this catalogue. The “swamp behind the Botanic Garden,” the ‘‘bog-meadows near Greenwich” have lon ng ago been built over, al Love-lane is now a paved street. The station here recorded for Draba Caroliniana has ceased to be available to the eet of the prema day, as that plant no longer grows, according to the catalogue, E fields about Canal street.” Not only have localities disappeared, but those — whose names are associated with them, and who are recorded as having contributed material to the catalogue, have passed away also. Mitch- ell, Nuttall, Rafinesque, Eddy, LeConte, Cooper, and others, while they live in the memory of a few of those present, are to the most of us known | only by their works. From this catalogue as an initial point, let us briefly survey fe si ied half century with reference to the botanic - works of its au In 1820, Seis edie in Silliman’s Journal, vol. 4, A Notice of Plants collected by Capt. N. Douglass around the Great Lakes at the Head-waters of the Mississi; In 1823, the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History co tained the first instalment of the many precious contributions made | the author to our knowledge of the plants of the far West. Its title Descriptions of some new or rare Plants Jrom the Rocky Mountains, collect by Dr. Edwin James. In 1824 was published, A Filara of the Northern and Middle United Stat or a Systematic Arrangeme nt and Description of all the Plants heretofore o ve work was published, and as a portion of the edition was destroyed fire, it is now only rarely to be met with. It contains over five hund pages, and includes the first twelve classes of the Linnean syaa. :. In the same year, 1824, we find in the Annals of the Lyceum, Deseri a is and tha pata OE _ Dr. Torrey appears as editor and joint author with Schweinitz, of A ograph of the North American n Species of Carex. NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 43 The year 1826 was marked by the publication of the Compendium of the Flora of the Northern and Middle States, a —. so full, concise, and com- pact, that it was indeed acompendium. Probably some of those present can remember when this volume came to their relief, and the delight with which they turned to its brief diagnoses, after puzzling over the vague ks. December, 1826, our author read before the Lyceum, Some Account of a Collection of Plants made during a Journey to and from the ocky Mountains, in the Summer of 1820, by Edwin P. James, M. D., Assis- tant Surgeon U. S. Army. This paper was not published until 1828. It 7 a memoir of some eighty pages, and enumerates 481 plants, many o Which were new species. This was, up to the date of its nanan sn author’s most important PRD to science, and is even now fre- quently refered = by the student of our Sma plants. ampai ecial interest, as it was am first Americun work of any impor- tance in sentir the arrangement was according to the Natural System. ‘The only exception to this is a list by Abbé Correa, of those genera ap- pended to Muhlenburgh’s Catalogue, arranged according to the Natural Orders of Jussieu. A Catalogue of North American Genera of Plants, ar- ranged according to the Orders of Lindley’s Introduction to Botany, was pub- lished in 1831, both in a separate form, and as an appendix to an American nme m Lindley’s work. I 6, the Annals of the Lyceum are rich with the Monograph of the Cyperacee, and the volume for 1837 contained a memoir on New Genera and Species of Plants. The year 1838 saw the commencement of the Flora of North America, by John Torrey and Asa Gray, which was published in numbers and a intervals until the year 1843. The rich treasures lear in by our West- ern explorers SS the continuance of this work, and its authors directed their agross to plants from hitherto tae en fields. That elaborate sect in o large volumes, The Flora of the State of New York, by John Torey, was published in 1843, a year which began a re- markable era in Ameri botany. In that year commenced that magnifi- cent series of a acca to our Western Flora by Torrey. Gray, and others, which followed one another in rapid succession. Nicollet’s plants, published in his report in 1843, was the first of this almost continuous series of reports, of which I will mention only those wholly or in part by Dr. Torrey. That daring young lieutenant of the Topographical Engi- neers, now General Fremont, made two expeditions to the Rocky Moun- tains, the botanical results of which “sete i in 1845. The report of the plants collected by Emory followed in 1848. In the Smithsonian Contributions we find three memoirs by our author accepted in 1850, though they were not published until a year or two later. These were A Memoir on Batis, another on Darlingtonia, and Plante Fremont tane, collected by General Fremont in his memorable expedition to California. 44 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. _ The year 1852 gave us the plants collected by Stansbury in the Region of 7 Salt Lake | some of these expeditions were elaborated by Newberry, Durand, and — others. Those collected by Beckwith and Gunnison, and by Pope onthe — Llano Estacado, appeared under the joint authorship of Torr E a. h of the botanical portion of them he contributed freely, often working up entire families. € most voluminous, as well as in some respects the most important — of these Botanical Reports of the Government expeditions is that of the a Mexican Boundary, published in 1859, and with this I close this chrono- — logical account, remarking that some contributions to science have been omitted altogether, This little catalogue of 1817 began the list, and it closes with the ele- gant quarto of the Mexican Boundary. Indeed there is no student of — American Botany who has not almost daily occasion to refer to the works | TORREY o ough his correspondence. These are works that will never be pub- lished, but they are deeply imprinted on the hearts of botanists in all- parts of the country. Tt may be thought that this hurried review of the botanical labors of our _ guest is incomplete, without some reference to his character as a man. - It is always a delicate task to speak fittingly of another in his presence _ and I could hardly trust myself to give utterance to what I feel is due him. Happily I am saved from the embarrassment that the attempt NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 45 would i by maD what is in the thoughts of all here present. Every ore who has been brought in frequent communication with him knows ao he ct ASis the philosopher in the friend, and that he has been made not only a better botanist, but a better man Many years ago, Arnott published in Taylor’s Annals of Natural His- -tory a description of a new genus, established on one of the beautiful Conifers of Florida, and gave it the name of Torreya. The Florida spe- cies is Torreya taxifolia. Since then there have been added to the genus Torreya nucifera from the island of Japan, . Torreya ce from the Pacific coast, and possibly another from Northern China, T. grandis. While we are glad that a so fine and widely spread genus ae bear the name of our friend, we regret that Arnott had not been more happy in his choice of a term to as a our native species. Although a native of Florida, it is hardy on this island, and even as far north as Fishkill, on the Hudson. It holds its aan foliage through the cold and snows of winter, and its presence here suggests thoughts of more genial climes ‘ Arno su and sho which has not ba ee freshness of ids but in which love—love to man and to God—reigns supreme? Long after the flowers shall have bloomed above us all, future botanists will carry on the work he has so nobly helped. ose yet unborn will wander by the Southern rivers, visit the mountains of far-off Japan, or climb our own grand Sierra Nevada in search of the Torreya, and his name will be remembered as long as there shall be botany and botanists. But these can only talk of him whom it is our privilege to know, to honor, and’ to love, and whose presence we now greet with the already too long-delayed sentiment: Long life, health, happiness, and. every blessing to our honored guest, Doctor JOHN TORREY. Doctor Torrey, after feelingly — his thanks, and the surprise which this demonstration was to him, gave an interesting account of his first introduction to the study of eves ny, and the great difficulties that attended the student in those days. Botanical ‘dee which, or their equivalents, are now to be had by every one, were then only to be found in the library of the New York pee oo r Torrey gave an account of some of the earlier teachers in the science, — Hosack, Eddy, Mitchell, and others, and a sketch of the history » pes Elgin Re Ga: —— The next regular sentiment was, ‘‘ The Flora of N ica;its past history and future prospects.” This was ea to ee Professor ated who EETA remarked that he hardly knew what Flora was inten but iew of it, if he were to judge from the number of young devotees abi as saw, he should consider Flora’s prospects very flatter- ing. He spoke of those who were collaborators in the Flora of North 46 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. America, and especially of Sartwell and Dewey, both a whom had cently died, and to whose memory he paid a feeling tribu Dr. Pickering, who was with the U. S. Exploring se replied a sentiment referring to government aid to science. Professor Eaton, to one on botany in our rs The Flora of California was the subject of remarks silo Professor Brewer, which were interesting as well as hum m. Leggett, of the — gave an account of the new local w in preparation. Mr. Jam e a member of the club, spo! of ed relations of botany to floriculture. Professor ses Mr. 8. this country. It is very minute in its account, and is written in such im uch It . Clin : . Tu man, W. D. Brackenridge, Paina J. tats Russell, Dr. Z. Pitcher, Professor J. P. Kirtland, and that of Dr. Jacob Bigelow, now the oldest botanist, we give entire. GENTLEMEN, — — Your kind and flattering invitation, requesting m "e ae be given in New York in honor of much haapaa teats ain Torrey, is received with much gratitude, gre were now May or June instead of bleak De ber, I should be irresistibly tempted to join in your appropriate festiv vity. But as there tad on tually to apa the forh I am anahe, phena ‘to give u the promered | wer i acquaintan your honored gu = 7 t that dis- tance of time, I h 1 jen Pi Pe AS a lit the plants of Boston. "Dr Torrey, who was then eating ational work on American plants, with more rote me natin s sly 01 me the use of his collections, notes, and personal paehna I would undertake the . Fortunately for Botanical eiaa I declined the responsibility, and the work hass ners SAES out by himself and Asa G : a at times I } k ig ic d plants ont Rhine, the Rhone, the ss tiner, a and the, Deane a not overlooking the St. Lawrence and the Mis- NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 47 Te q If ne ; 3 + + souri. T y g I Fort Harker, away among the 1 q hill Riv Although n if a sci ientific section of = Unk were now to be made, it might Senses about ur-score annual circles, yet I am happ: ‘ar to do their duty, and the sap vessels to transmit hele. Sonim _And I confidently enor : that on no J I am, gentlemen, with th test 5 + 3 JACOB BIGELOW. ZOOLOGY. HE BreEENnING Hapits oF Brrps.—I notice in the November num- ber of the NATURALIST an article from Mr. Fowler, in which are given some interesting facts in relation to the breeding habits of several of our birds, but which are, as Mr. Fowler says, so uttefly at variance with the accounts given of these bird’s habits in my recent book, that I Ie tréspass on your limits for an explanation, and reiteration of some of my remarks. In the work referred to, I describe the King- fisher’s gates as being placed in holes excavated in sand-banks, to the depth of three, four, sometimes six or eight feet. The holes found by Mr. Fowler were less than three feet in length, and none of them contained any nest materials whatever. Here Mr Fowler’s experience is entirely different from my ow ong of numbers of these holes that I have dug out, many of them were beyond four feet their loose nests composed of straws, sticks, and a few feathers, and I should be surprised me meet with the eggs laid on the cold damp earth, such as would be at the bottom of such deep excavations. I find, on re- oe to the various korn ote that nearly all had similar experiences with pares says, ‘‘The hole is dug to the depth of four, five, or some- times six feet; at the farther end, on a few sticks and feathers, the eggs are deposited.” ilson says, ‘‘The hole is dug, sometimes to the extent of aa or five feet. the nest is constructed of loose grass and a few feat Nuttall says, ‘‘The bank is horizontally perforated, to the PER of five or six feet. Here, on a few twigs, grass, and feathers, the eggs are de- A. ” Dr. Thompson, in “Birds of Vermont,” says, ‘‘ The perforations some- times extend five or six feet into the bank. The nest consists of twigs, grass, and feathers.” In describing the breeding place of the Red or Mottled Owl, in my work, I use the following language: “The Mottled Owl selects for a nesting-place a hollow tree, often in the orchard. The nest is made at the bottom of = hollow, and is constructed of grass, leaves, moss, and sometimes a few feathers. It is not eluborately made, being nothing more than a heap of soft materials.” * n in depositing its eggs on the horse. I was very busy at the time, ‘idea of sewing, such as the process of preparing the nest of the V Dies is, that one day I discovered an Anthrax on the wing by © 48 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. Here again Mr. Fowler disagrees with me, saying that the bird makes no nest, or, at least, he has never found one. I can only say that I have found numbers of the nests of these birds, none of which were in «abandoned nest of the crow or hawk,” but all were made, as before scribed, in holes in trees. I have had over fifty eggs of this species § me during the past season, and all were found in such nests as Th described. tite this species I also find that my accounts are supported by other author i Nuttall says, “the nest is usually in the hollow of an old orchard it is lined carelessly with a little hay, leaves, and feathers.” Audubon says, ‘The nest is placed in the bottom of the hollow tru of a tree, often not at a greater height than six or seven feet from he ground, at other times so high as from thirty to forty feet. It is co i posed of a few grasses and feathers.” Dr. Thompson, in ‘‘ Birds of Vermont,” says, ‘‘ Their nest, which made of grass and feathers, is placed at the bottom of a hollow tree or stub.” I give this matter this extended notice, not for the purpose of throw discredit on Mr. Fowler’s statements, for 1 know him to be a good server, but to show that my descriptions will faithfully apply to, at le the majority of occurrences in the breeding habits of the species ret red to. As to the matter of the Marsh Hawk’s nest being “rather nes woven,” to which Mr. Fowler takes exceptions, I will say. that p haps ‘‘interlaced” would be a better word, since ‘woven’ ' ve and Oriole, but ‘‘interlaced” conveys the idea of careful adjustme which should be understood in connection with the nest of this § cies.— EDWARD A, SAMUELS, Boston. PARASITE. — Inclosed you will find some thin shavings from boa and slabs where the Xylocopa abounds, with small eggs attached, W I strongly suspect to be those of Anthrax sinuosa. They are quite numerously around the openings of the cells of the former it and also extend to some distance from them. In pressing some of eggs with the point of a pin, small maggots made their appearance, my lens was not powerful enough to enable me to make out what were, but they seemed to me to resemble very much the Anthrax in earliest stages, as I have found it on the Xylocopa. I have no doubt yo can determine this matter,* and should it prove to be what I have SUl in it is, it will open an interesting field for future observation. n that strongly inclines me to the belief that they are the eggs the openings of a Xylocopa cell, acting in the same manner as the P arth, + Ss 2.) 5 th pr 4 ‘i, THe. DO rY ey ana NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 49 did not look for the eggs until some time afterwards, when I found those of which the inclosed are a sample. However, I think if you find them to sete toa TROR insect, there can be no doubt but sai are those of A. sinuosa. — JAMES ANGUS. HIBERNATION OF WILD BEES ae beg leave to say that I think you have made a mistake in supposing or stating that the females only, and not the males of Ceratina dupla, survive the winter. Both sexes, according to my observations, hybernate, as py ce aa Virginica. beg o re ou say,* wi wW tities, and not unfrequently males also. While this is the case with some species, I think what you say is correct with regard to others. — JAMES ANGU JUVENILE NATURAL History Socrery.—We have in this city per- haps quite a T curjosity, na mely, a re ear of Natural History, composed of boys less than twenty year age. We have been organized two years, and are now in a very haar hire condition, although it was hard ‘‘tugging” for a few of us the first year. We cave, for us, a large collection, and a good one, numbering some eight hun- dred specimens. We cannot, of course, do much at research, but we are coming surely along the road you older naturalists have gone; and, b and by, when we get on the frontier where you are, you will hear from us.—G. W. a arend nd ae? Michiga PROTECTION ROM Insects.—The quantity of fruit ge- stroyed wich iss -E cae their eggs in the blossoms is enormous. odor of which is enough to drive them away, and, in some cases, to des- troy them, and nothing more is required than to sprinkle the branches with a mixture of vinegar and water at the moment the blossoms begin to appear. The so at consisting of one part of strong vinegar to nine parts of water, can be sprinkled over the flower-buds by means of a garden engine or syringe, or even with a watering-pot with a fine nose. — Proceedings of the Entomological Society, JATHA 1866. OCCURRENCE OF THE BARNACLE GOOSE IN NORTH AMERICA. —AÀ speci- men of this goose (Bernicla pia has recently been received by the Smithsonian Institution from Mr. B. R. Ross, a gentleman well known for his collections and publications riia to arctic zodlogy. It was obtain- ed by that gentleman near Rupert House, on James Bay (the southern į men brought to the notice of naturalists. It has for a long time been in- dicated as belonging to our fauna, but only on hearsay evidence of gun- ners and travellers, and it is not mentioned pi Richardson at all in his work on American Arctic Zoölogy.—S. F. B " * Naturalist, Vol. I, p. 392. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II T í 50 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. ‘ LE EaG.— Yesterday one of my servants, on opening a hen’s egg site another egg within it. The inclosed was about the size of a robin’s egg, with a well-formed, slightly rough shell. It lay in the white. The parent egg was fully formed and was eaten. I heard of it on arriv- ing home, and secured the small one. It has not yet been opened. — E. L. S. There are two similar specimens in the Museum of the Essex Institute. poe cases are also mentioned as occurring in England, in Hardwicke’s ce Gossip, in which it states that a ‘‘communication was made last — year ot the Académie des Sciences of France, of a similar occurrence.”— _ EDITORS. Hasrrs OF THE E PTRD SNAKE. — A case of the common striped snake after a chase by crushing itin its folds in the boa constrictor manner, has for the first time come to my know- an- ner described of the large constrictors, except perhaps the chasna F. W., Newark, N. J. sep tae THE MICROSCOPE IN GroLocy.—D. Forbes, in the Popular Science Review, writes on this pen novel subject. After a few prefatory remarks upon the general advantages of the use of the Microscope in all ents of such rocks are seen to be developed as more or less perfect crystals, at all angles to one another,” which he infers could only take in a rock at one time, ‘in a state of liquidity or solution ” (aqueous or igneous). When “ quartz, leucite, calcite, felspar,” and other colorless minerals present similar appearances in thin sections, they may be d tinguished al “their optical properties and the use of polarized light by similar tests different forms of the same mineral may be separate and the structure, whether crystalline or vitreous, determined, and t alterations in eruptive rocks produced by. the action of water, the atmo: ; or other lied. In pendant refere is made to the discovery by Sorby of the existence ‘tof nume: min ” and also in volcanic aten “int ! felspar and nephiline ejected f from the crater of Vesuvius.” These fact and the farther statement that “finia vapor, gas, and stone cavities, common both to the volcanic quartz- -trachytes and the oldest g NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 51 three kinds or classes: Ist. “ Those Pager em of the immediate products of the breaking up of eruptive rocks.” “Rocks built up of the more or less rounded or angular debris of fice sins existing sedimentary or eruptive rocks.” 3d. “Rocks composed of mineral substance extracted from aqueous solution by crystallization, precipitation, or the action of organic life.” Strata of the first class are often identical in aspect and chemical composition, but their irregular sedimentary structure is dis- solved upon submitting them to the microscopical test. Very fine, com- pact rocks may be distinguished from crystalline rocks by the same means. ‘Roofing-slate, however, has a definite arrangement of the par- ticles in lines, which constitute the lines of weakness or the cleavage of the slate.” This arrangement, however, is explained by the effects of pressure, applied at right-angles to the structure itself, causing an elon- gation of some, together with a sliding I of others of the par- ticles Uski the third head we notice that the’ clays of Staffordshire, when altered by contact with basaltic dykes, present a structure identical with common stoneware made from the same clays, and show “no change in mineral or chemical composition, beyond the expulsion of the water always contained in such beds.” The foliated schists, quartzites, etc., show the contours of the original sand-grains, and, as Sorby has pointed out, the existence of ripple-drift and wave-structure eel ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Tue MistLETOE.—I believe it is the common opinion of naturalists om the common Mistletoe of this Southern country steals the elabo- from the stalk which supports it. I, think it can be proved aa A but that it draws its portion of crude sap and elabo- rates it, returning a portion to the tree on which it grows. I would be very glad to know if I am correct in reference to the common opin- ion of naturalists, and will oblige you to inform me.—J. M. It is not the common opinion that the Mistletoe of the Southern States, view of proving experimentally that the Mistletoe does not take elabo- rated sap alone (for it very probably takes some) from its host, as they could not fail to be interesting. — H. M. Ts Masropow ns Kansas. —T send yon a photograph and dee 52 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. streams, where there is some danger of savants losing their scalps. One rib has been detached and ground up into powder by the Indians for med- icine.—Joun D. PARKER, Topeka, Kansas. # a5 referred your letter and photograph to Professor J. Wyman, W. tes: “Thé chil ograph is unluckily taken from an oblique point of view, which I believe Lee will never learn to be a bad one. If the view had been full front, or full side, or full anything, it would have been better render the production of sound and well-developed fruit more sure. botanists think if it were not for bees and other insects, many plants would not fruit at all. This whole subject of the great office bees and other insects perform in the fertilization of plants has been fully discus- sed in the May, July, and October numbers of the AMERICAN Na ride by RTT Asa Gray in the AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, beginning ay, Pi is iy ae that bees do injury in some way by extracting the honey owers. What is the use in nature of honey? The best observers If all the bees were to be destroyed, I for one, if a farmer, would prefe: to go into some other business. This prejudice against bees a to u: + ee R. H., Nichols, N. = — The hymenopterous insect from the sug maple tree is the Tremex columba. It bores, while in the larva state, i the trunk of the maple and oak. The beetles are Copris anaglypticus $ Cicindela sexguttata, Ancylocheira 6-plagiata and A. fasciata. The fy 8 allied to Tabanus, the House-fly, and has a powerful bite. E. B., Wheeling, West Virginia.—The microscopic form found in ruvian Guano appears to be one of the Polycystine. The only auth that we know of is Ehrenberg’s Microgeologie. Specific, and even neric names, are almost useless in this group of Rhizoi seemed —C.5S. PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 53 W. W. G., Ann Arbor, Wis. ep spe insects called snow-fleas are probably the Podura nivicola of Dr. Fitch. They are found in winter at the foot of trees, under the Bic of ie they pa and also about manure heaps and in e The Heleochara communis, a homopterous insect, allied in form to the Cicada, or seventeen-year locust, produces the frog-spittle seen in mid- summer on grass. The larva sucks in the sap, which passes through the body and forms a frothy mass concealing the insec PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. anaes. sane Essex Institute, Salem. — First Field Meeting at Haverhill, on Tuesday, eather. erp cy meer: on oa north hank of the Merrimac, is a towns, a of Indian barbarity is among its SL a legends. The prin- cipal point of attraction to the naturalist is ‘‘ Kenoza Lake,” formerly known as the “ Great Pond,” a lovely sheet of water, embosomed among the hills, covering an area of about three hundred acres. During their rambles in its vicinity the party was rewarded in finding many interest- ing apre in the various departments. The afternoon session was held in the North Congregational Church, and was called to order at 2.30 o'clock, Vice-president Fowler in the chair. Dr. George B. Loring, of Salem, made a few eloquent remarks on the prospects of the year, and the occasion which had brought them together. F. W. Putnam, of Salem, gave a description of the habits of the common Plant-louse. Dr. James R. Nichols, of Haverhill, remarked that chemi- ta the pgg and library of the Institute, and alluded in very terms to cent donation of Mr. George Peabody, for the e promotion of science ie useful knowledge in this county. Edward S. Morse, of Salem, drew a comparison of the studies of the naturalist near the =: ren Ordway, of Bradford, and others, 54 PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. Second Meeting at Andover.— After a cordial reception by Professor Thayer, of the Theological Seminary, the company divided A hg ae and visited the various objects of interest; many w rary and museum of the blips Seminary, the new fils a Phillips Academy, etc. The naturalists repaired to the woods and meadows, and were amply repaid ye their excursions. The meeting was held in the South Congregational Church. Dr. George B. Loring, of Salem, of the Field Meeting Committee, presided, and, on taking the chair, alluded to several interesting episodes in the history of this town, and briefly stated the objects of the Institute. .A. Hyatt, of Salem, spoke of he had found during the previous ramble, and illustrated his subject by drawings on the blackboard. Professor Hitchcock exhibited a map of An- dover, upon which he had designated, by different colors, the localities of the four principal kinds of rocks—granite, stratified gneiss, mica schist, and ae Carer: Quincy sienite. George D. Phippen, of Salem, spoke of the Rev. Mr. Smith, pastor of the church; Rev. C. R. Palmer, of Salem; nae F. G. jia o of Andover; Hinapi D. Crosby, of Dart- mouth College; Professor A. Crosby, of Salem; President Larrabee, for- merly of R cua and others, alias the scene Third Meeting at Beverly Farms, on Thursday, August 1, 1867.— Dis- embarking at Pride’s aint Hoke on the Gloucester Branch Railroad : party separated into groups, under guides familiar with the adjacent ; country. One of these groups rambled over the wild and elevated re- J 3 =] — i=) fee) bar} = A m © S — = E S zi © t te © La] E ect ® r st & ° § n F 5 c+ Dp G i) elegant mansions in that beautiful locality. r ce of naturalists passed — the forenoon in dredging the harbor for crabs, worms, mollusks, and zoophytes atten ynoon session was held in the Second Baptist Church, at nin: Vice-president A. C. Goodell, jr., in the chair. After a few pre- inary remarks from the chair, reading records, correspondence, ani daia C. M. Tracy, of Lynn, described the flora peculiar to this rei since those cultivated in one country, grow spontaneously in others. Messrs. E. S. Morse and A. Hyatt spoke of the various objects found during the previous dredgings, —the first named discussed the mollusea, the other the radiates, and also described the different belts or zones which animals and plants are found, each having its peculiar species. PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 55 Joseph E. Ober, of Beverly Farms, gave a valuable historical sketch of Wests Beach. He said that- the name was. derived, not from the point of compass, but from John West, who held a grant of the place from Salem in 1660. Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Harvard University; R. &. Rantoul, F. W. Putnam, E. N. Walton, T. Ropes, and H. Wheatland, all of Salem, made remarks appertaining to the objects of the meeting. Fourth Meeting at Kittery, Maine, on Thursday, August 21, 1867. — The first meeting outside the limits of the State, and the second held out of Essex county. The principal objects ne DERETA aside from the natu- ral history of the place, are the U. S. Navy-yard, and the historical asso- ciations; here are to be seen the mansion of Sir wis Pepperell, the richest merchant and most extensive land-owner in New England at the ‘time when he won his military reputation at Louisburg, and a baronetcy from the English crown; a portion of this building has been changed, but enough remains to give an idea of its pristine grandeur; also, the Spar- awk mansion, built by Sir William for a married daughter, is elabo- rately decorated; the Cutts’ house, etc. The afternoon session was held in ee hea building of the 8. & ailroad, kindly granted to our use by the President and Directors of iet oad, and was called to order at 2 o’clock, by Vice- president Goodell. etnias botanical and zodélogical specimens, culled by the members, were laid upon the table, and the chairman called upon various gentlemen to explain them. Mr. C. M. Tracy, of Lynn, discussed he flor: ey t homo, or that part of it which is hative to Arizona Territory, the peel and character. Rev. E. C. Society of Natural History, and then gave an interesting discourse on microscopic fungi. Rev. Joseph Banvard, of Patterson, N. J., responded for a new society, founded on the plan of the Institute. Rev. George D. Wildes, of Salem, alluded to the Historical Associations of this place. James N. Buffum, of ge soe others, addressed the meeting. town, replete with many old historical associations. On arriving, the party a geen to the Town Hall, where the baskets were deposited, from which they diverged in daiis directions, some into the woods, along ee banks of the river, and down to the very interesting beach just below its mouth. Some took the Topsfield road, in search of plants and snails; others to ‘the neck,” where some ancient In dian were inspected. je afternoon session was held in the vestry of the Methodist Church. ident Goodell, upon taking the chair, explained the objects of the Society, and briefly recounted its history. George D. Phippen, ot -p6 PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. spoke of the flora. E. S. Morse described the Indian relics found in the mounds on the neck, also those which he had found at Goose Island, in Portland harbor. He concluded his remarks by describing the mann in which certain of the ee animals eat, ý Mustrating the process with figures on the blackboard. CHICAGO ACADEMY OF ScrEN Noces. Oct. 8, 1867.—Dr. J. J. Jewell, of the Lake Tunnel, read a report in relation the geology of the Chicago Lake Tunnel. Dr. Meyers, of Fort Wayne, Ind., then described the finding of the bones of the Mastodon, presented by him to the academy. He said the c p se found by the farmer, as well as the right to make farther explorations. u one skeleton of the calf and one of the adults are ine complete, and cap ble of being mounted. They lay at the depth of four or five feet, in a stratum of peat overlaying blue clay, containing naaran shells. d peat among the bones were found fragments of boughs and branches several kinds of wood, in a good state of preservation, some of which had been gnawed by the beaver. The spot at which the bones were found is a small basin-shaped depression in the middle of a corn-field, W was formerly a willow swamp, and has but recently been sufficiently we drained to allow of cultivation. It is a region where traces of ancit lakes and beaver-dams are particularly abundant. The size of the adult mastodon has not yet been estimated. by will not fall far short of this in dimensions, ——+0—— _ BOOKS RECEIVED. NANKENO BAE London. November, December, 1 Pe: eye London. November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, a el T u, 21, 28, Ha ikes Science Gossi ember, December, 1 Cosmos. November er Bevember ery At al 287 180, r Bog tei 38 10s, Paris. ge Arizona to the Pacific. Pe. er Fi nei Novembe 30, De D. (Œ rom the Ibis , July, 1867. e r cember ly Journal of Science. T ai 25, 1868. London. American Bee Journal. January, February, 1 Popular Science Review arterly). Londi à anuary, 1868. Chemical News. = Samar Febraaty, iss. a : R o i w : ime ene office; will the publishers ‘please 1 Vie ater for Deo. 7 was never reseed, pna a ie AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. II.— APRIL, 1868.—No. 2. ece DD NOTES ON.MEXICAN ANTS. BY EDWARD NORTON. Te insects mentioned in the following paper were for- warded to the Smithsonian Institution from Mexico by Pro- fessor Sumichrast, with notes by him upon the habits of several of the species. It is a matter of some interest to notice, that, among over twenty species, about half of which are undescribed, not one is known in the United States, while several are found in Panama and Brazil. Yet many of them live in the temperate region of Mexico! ` I have added to the statements of Professor Sumichrast some recorded accounts of several of the species already described, to show how little is really known about these curious insects, and partly in the hope that some reader of this paper may also become an observer of the species around his. own home, in their varied habits and occupations and labors. In the whole insect world, only the honey-bee equals the ant in its instinct and the development of rea- soning powers which appear truly marvellous in such minute creatures. Perhaps the most striking peculiarity of the ants is their social character ; assembling in companies of almost countless numbers, and yet working in harmony for definite objects ; _ g Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Oce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 8 AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. (57) 58 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. for while they have no recognized head or guide, they all seem to devote themselves to systematic efforts for forward- ing the public good. All their energies are given to this, — and for this they are ready to sacrifice their lives. ) The family of ants, in addition to the males and females, _ which are winged and generally short-lived, presents “neue ] ters,” or workers, which are wingless and live throughout the a year, and perform the labor of the community. The males — and females appear in the summer only. After a certain — time, when they are allowed to leave the nest, the whole — society teems with excitement, and only settles back into its usual course when the superfluous members fly off in swarms — to seek new homes. Of those which remain, the males soon die, while the females tear off their wings, or have them _ torn off by the workers. Once established, the female soon : lays her eggs, which are minute, but increase in size before the larve burst forth. These are footless grubs, which are — carefully tended and fed by the workers, with a fluid pre- viously elaborated in their stomachs. When fully grown, these larvæ assume the dormant or pupa state, some genera forming cocoons, and some not, and soon undergo the trans- formation into the perfect insect. These larve and pup® are watched with jealous care by the workers, and are trans- ported by them to different parts of the nest, or more or less exposed to the air according to the temperature. Before man can foresee the coming storm, the nests are securely closed, and ere the skies are fairly cleared, their labors are resumed. The bodies of other animals, the juices of plani and even the sap secretions of other insects, such as Aphides: or Plant-lice, are taken by them for the nourishment of their helpless charges. ee The workers often present two distinct forms, now call the major and minor workers,. in addition to which a t set of workers is often found in one nest, which are evide of another species, but have been captured when Jarve the stronger species, and bred and enslaved for this purpos ory NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 59 On this point but little is recorded as yet in this country,* but we have abundant testimony from observers of European species. The major workers are usually of large size, and have the head greatly developed, but are comparatively few in num- ber. Their duties in the society are not clearly understood, but they are supposed to have some kind of superintendence over the rest. In the following descriptions I have thought best only to mention one or more of the prominent external characteris- tics by which the genera of the species here mentioned may be known. t ; SUBFAMILY FORMICIDÆ. In the genus Formica, the node, or knot-like segment between the thorax and abdomen, forms a smooth, oval or globular mass, and there is no sting. Formica esuriens Smith. “This is very common in Ori- zaba and Cordova. It lives in great numbers in dead trees, in which it tunnels galleries, or under stones.” From its form this should be grouped with our large black Formica Pennsylvanica, which lives in dead trees. It is not by any means certain that the species living in dead wood per- forates that which is living. It seems much more likely that it occupies the channels already opened by the grubs of various borers, and helps to complete the work partly done for it. In this region the worker remains in a torpid state - *See Mr. J. A. Allen’s “ Notice of a Foray of a oy, of Formica sanguinea La- treille, upon a Colony of the black species of Formica, for the purpose of making Slaves of the latter.” Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. V, p: l, 1866. Formicidæ. has b 1e Ant-family, Fe having the icide. fi t of the abd ing a single node. (See Fig.3 a, showing the pape node cor Polyrhachis) Not pro nae wana sting. Poneride.— The segment of the abdomen with one node. Provided with a sting. Myrmicide.— ment of the ‘abdomen with two nodes. Provided sting. From this Sakis two more subfamilies have been eren Attidæ, the workers ve enormously developed | heads, and i , 1 tha Caus or p Ve a3! liy or p - 60 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. in decaying wood in midwinter. Dr. Fitch has described a smaller species (Formica Carye) which inhabits hickory 4 trees, boring its passages, as he thinks, in the living wood. The wood on the sides of these passages is much discolored and softened, probably by an acrid fluid (formic acid) emit- ted for that purpose by the insects. Formica fulvacea. (Fig. 1, worker major.) “Taken in Cordova, where, in the woods, it ordinarily makes its nests in the middle branches of Bromeliaceous parasites.” Formica nitida. “Inhabits the mountains of Orizaba, where it lives in little companies under the bark of pines.” Formica nacerda. “Orizaba and Cordova. Found upon — | leaves of plants.” a Tapinoma. In this genus the node is usually received d into a depression at the base of the abdomen proper, so that — , at first sight it often seems to be entirely wanting. a | Tapinoma piceata. “Potrero (near Cordova) Inthe wood — | | f ; of oaks.” Tapinoma tomentosa. (Fig. 2, worker; the antennæ im- perfect.) “Orizaba. In little societies under stones.” Polyrhachis. This genus has the node of the peduncle thickened and usually spinose (whence the generic name from the Greek, meaning many-pointed), having two, three, a or four.spines. The thorax is usually more or less armed with spines or hooks. Polyrhachis arboricola. (Fig. 3, worker, 3a, side view of thorax and abdomen.) “Mexico. Indigenous in the hot region, where it is very common. Its nest is ordinarily sometimes dwells a little species of Paroquet, the Conurus Aztec Somm.) Itis quite vagabond in its habits, and one sees it running around on the trunks of all sorts of trees and leaves of shrubs, which strongly proves it to be essen- tially a tree inhabitant. It causes no trouble on plantations.” NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 61 SUBFAMILY PONERIDZ. Ponera. This genus, which is allied to the “Driver Ant” of the west coast of Africa, is known by having the node of the peduncle thickened, nodiform, with the first segment of the abdomen more or less constricted. In the anterior wings there are one marginal, two complete submerged, and one discoidal cell. All the tibial spurs of the tibie are pectinate, or comb-like. Ponera strigata. “Temperate region of Mexico, under stones.” Ponera pedunculata Smith. One worker was received from Mexico. This species has previously occurred at Pan- ama and at Rio. Ectatomma. This genus is known by the thickened node of the peduncle, and the deep constriction between the first and second segments of the abdomen. The antenne are in- serted low down at the base of the clypeus; the eyes are placed above the middle of the face, while the spurs of only the anterior tibiæ are pectinate. Ectatomma ferruginea. (Fig. 4, 4a, side view of pedun- cle of the abdomen.) “Mexico. This species is only found in the encinales, or oak forests of the hot and temperate region, where it lives in little societies under the trunks of fallen trees.” The male differs very greatly in its antenne and the form of the thorax from the worker. Mr. Smith has noted and figured several such cases. But this species seems peculiar in the division of the metathorax. SUBFAMILY MYRMICIDÆ. In the genus Eciton, the peduncle consists of two nodes. The males and females are unknown. Both kinds of work- ers have very minute eyes, which are absent in some species. In several species the major workers have very long man- dibles curved at the end, but without teeth. Eciton hamata Fabr. “Rio Atoyai, near Cordova.” This is also found in Brazil and Cayenne. The two kinds of 62 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. workers in this and the succeeding species have been pre- viously described. i 3 Eciton Mexicana Roger. (Fig. 5, worker major, 50, front view of head showing the immense sickle-like mandi: — bles, and only the two basal joints of the antenne. F ig. 6, } worker minor; with a front view of the head, showing the ` mandibles of the usual size.) “Cordova, Orizaba, etc.” Eciton brunnea. “Occurs at Cordova, Orizaba, ete.” i Eciton Sumichrasti. (Fig.7.) “Cordova, Orizaba, ete. All — the researches that I have made up to this time to discover the _ JSormicarium of the Eciton, have been fruitless, and I cannot — obtain any information from the natives where these insects _ are common. At one time only (May, 1865) I found under & fallen trunk a prodigious number of workers of Æ. Mexicana. They were heaped and piled upon each other like the bees _ in a swarm. Attacking them with the end of a stick, I obliged them to disperse, but could find no entrance which | they concealed, no eggs, no males nor females. “Especially before a storm, or after a stormy rain, one meets travelling bands of Heiton. Their march is generally | conducted in excellent order, and with a file of one or two individuals in front. Sometimes, however, the column en- larges itself, scatters and attacks with fury the passer-by, who, by ill-luck, has disturbed the procession. The Æ. Mexicana especially seems naturally very irascible, and the entomologist who wishes to enrich his collection with speci- mens of this species, must take his time and protect his legs from an attack. - E. Mexicana. It is difficult to satisfy oneself as to the which they fill in the community. I have watched attention the passage of columns of Eciton, but coul nothing to indicate any peculiar attributes to these in uals. “The Eciton does no harm to agriculture by depriving NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 63 ~~ frees of their leaves, like the GEcodoma. On the contrary, it ae Dales potoi a meet of noxious insects, and so recom- — ha, s jiself to plant while it merits the attention of ento mologi oaks bia ‘the singularity of its habits, and the ob- seurity which yet reigns about its history.” — In relation to the pmen of these major workers with long mandibles, Mr. Bates writes (British Museum Catalogue of Hymenoptera, Vol. VI, p.149) of a South American species : “I am quite convinced that these large-headed ones are a distinct order of individuals in a colony of Ecitons, and fulfil some distinct, peculiar functions.” “I once saw on a beach a dense column of Ecitons descending from the rocks on one side of the harbor, traversing the beach and climbing again on the opposite side; the length of the column visible was from _ sixty to seventy yards, and yet there was no appearance of the van or the rear of the army. It was probably a migra- tion, as all the small-headed individuals carried in their mandibles a cluster of white maggots, probably larve of their own species.” “The large-headed individuals were in proportion of perhaps about fve i in one hundred to the small individuals, but not one of them carried anything in its man- dibles. They were all trotting along outside fy the column, and distributed in regular proportion throughout the whole line, their globular white heads rendering them quite con- spicuous among the rest, bobbing up and down as they trav- ersed the inequalities of the road.” All of the Ecitons seem to prey upon living objects. It seems probable that animal food is converted into nourish- ment for their larve by comminution, as in other species is the case with vegetable matter. _ Mr. Bates observes “that ad cies, the . predator, n dense masses. “The entire phalanx, when passing over a teal of open ground, occupies 64 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. a space of from six to ten square yards; where they pass,all | the rest of the insect world is in commotion and alarm. Th stream along the ground and climb to the summit of all lower trees, searching every leaf to its apex.” They : often seen with the larve and eggs and remains of other ants, doubtless the result of attacks upon their nests. Their ~ own nests have never yet been discovered. a Tn one case he thus chronicles the result of his examina- 3 tion of Æ. legionis. One evening he discovered a column ~ of them at work. The next day he found them again not far | off. They were mining in a bank of light soil, and extract- ing therefrom a bulky species of Formica, with their larvæ and eggs. It was curious to see them crowding around ti orifices of the mines, and assisting their comrades to lift out the bodies of the luckless ants; the latter being too bulky” | to carry were torn to pieces, and the marauders forthwith started off laden with their booty. “For some distance there = were many lines of these moving along the declivity of th a bank, but at a short distance these converged. I then — traced them to a large and indurated and ancient termita- — rium; up the ascent of these the Ecitons were moving in: dense column, like a stream of liquid metal; many were lugging up the bodies of the Formicæ, and the whole di peared in one of the spacious tubular cavities, which alw traverse these old termitaria from the summit to the base 3 Pachycondyla. In this genus the node of the peduncle 15 thickened, cubical, or nearly so, elevated to the same i as the first segment, and usually of nearly the same wi The eyes are small and inserted low down upon the hea The spurs of only the two anterior tibiæ are pectinate. (M Smith says all are pectinate. ) By! Pachycondyla Orizabana. “It lives at Orizaba in Mti societies under stones and trunks of trees.” r Pseudomyrma. In this genus the first node is elo pedunculate, the second large and globose. The anten inserted near together and near the mouth ; eyes elong NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 65 Meat occupy ing a large portion of the head. Anterior sea OS with-one-marginél and three submarginal cells. ie ee bicolor Guérin. (Fig. 8. The hind legs nted, the specimen being imperfect.) “Mexico. also found in Columbia and at Panama.” - Pseudomy yrma flavidula Smith. Mexico. This is also a South American species. I cannot feel quite sure that it is P. flavidula. “Among the quite numerous species of Pseu- domyrma that one finds in Mexico, one class appears to be solitary (at least, one never meets them except alone) while the others (as is the case in P. bicolor and P. flavidula) live in greater or less numbers within the spines which arm the | stems of certain species of Mimosa. These spines, fixed in pairs upon the branches, are pierced near their extremity by a hole (seen in the cut at a), which serves for the entrance and exit of the ants. The interior is hollow and includes some neuters, the larvæ, and, in the season, males and females. The Pseudomyrma saat stings very sharply, and attaches itself with tenacity by its mandiiles to the part of the body which it seizes. Although this differs a little in size, one of these species may be considered to be the P. flavidula Smith.” Mr. Smith has described a species from Panama (P. mo- desta), “which lives in the hollow thorns or spines of a spe- cies of Acacia. The fe are three inches long, tapering 66 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. Pseudomyrma thoracica. “Cordova. In the trunks and : under the neu of trees, in societies which are sometimes | very numerous.’ ' Two other species of Pseudomyrma from South America A have been observed by Mr. Bates, P. oculata and P. termi- 'taria, which construct their dwellings in chambers in the outer walls of the tunnels of different species of Termes, or white ants. Still another species, with small colonies, con- i structs its formicarium in the pith-tube of dried twigs. From this variety of habits there would seem to be no defi- nite rule laid down for the genus, as in Formica and Myr ~ l mica. Each species or group of species must be studied separately, although the whole genus may meet on common | ground, as to its manner of procuring food and mode $i transformations. 1 The genus Atta has. two nodes in the peduncle. The ; wings are larger than the body, with one marginal and three duhoasieinal cells, the third sometimes incomplete, the second bell-shaped. The large workers have greatly develop heads, and the corslet, or thorax, is without spines. Thit genus belongs to the subfamily Attidæ of Mr. Smith. Atta ebypeate Smith. (British Museum Catalogue of H menoptera, Vol. VI, p. 169.) Mr. Smith describes only the male and female. The worker minor from Orizaba, Mexico, agrees tolerably well with the description. Another genus of this group is’ @codoma. It differs from Atta externally, in having the corslet armed with ie and in the fore wings are two submarginal cells, the being incomplete. Gis Mexicana Smith. (Fig. 9, female; 10, wo major.) (British Museum Catalogue of Hymenoptera, VI, p. 185.) “This species is unfortunately too abunda in Mexico, in the temperate departments of the gulf ¢ such as those of Orizaba, Cordova, ete. The neuters i A _ known in Mexico under the name of arrieras, or hormi arrieras, from the similarity presented by their mare NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 67 columns to a caravan of muleteers. The male and female ~ bear the name of Zicatanas. In many places the natives «eat the abdomen of the females after having detached the thorax. “Itis specially in ‘the koci countries that the Ciico- domas build their enormous formicaries, so that one per- ceives them from afar by the projection which they form above the level of the soil, as well as by the absence of vege- tation in their immediate neighborhood. These nests occupy a surface of many square metres,* and their depth varies from one to two metres. Very many openings of a diameter of about one to three inches are contrived from the exte- rior, and conduct to the inner cavities which serve as store- houses for the eggs and larve. The central part of the nest forms a sort of foimel; designed for the drainage of water, from which, in a country where the periodical rains are often abundant, they could hardly escape without being entirely submerged, if they did not provide for it some outlet. “The system which reigns in the interior of these formi- caries is extreme. The polostín of vegetable debris brought in by the workers is at times sinsstdevable. But it is depos- ited there in such a manner as not to cause any inconven- ience to the inhabitants, nor impede their circulation. It is mostly leaves which are brought in from without, and it is the almost exclusive choice of this kind of vegetation which makes the @codoma a veritable scourge to agriculture. At each step and in almost every place in the elevated woods as in the plains, in desert places as well as in the neighbor- of f habitations, _ one meets numerous columns of these 8, € wit ‘an admirable zeal in the transportation ; en It ms even that the great law of the division not i | by, these little creatures, judging from ‘aie Blowing observations which I have often had occasion to make. “The ground at the foot of the tree, where a troop of these +A metre is about thirty-nine (39.87) inches. 68 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. arrieras is assembled for despgiling it of its leaves, is ordi- narily strewn with fragments cut off with the greatest pre- cision. And if the tree is not too lofty, one can satisfy himself that a party of foragers, which have climbed the tree, oceupies itself wholly in the labor of cutting them off, while ; at the foot are the carriers which make the journeys between | the tree and the nest. This management, which indicates among these insects a rare degree of intelligence, is perhaps not a constant and invariable practice, but it is an incontest- ible fact, and one which can be constantly proved. a “The part of the inhabitants which may be called the work- f ers, is composed of wingless individuals of quite variable size. — The largest (workers majores of Smith) are distinguished _ from the others at first sight by the great enlargement of — the head, and the presence of a single ocellus upon the face. — Some travellers have attributed to these grosses-tétes, a SU perior share of intelligence, and represent them as exercising — a kind of surveillance over the other members of the com- ; munity. I avow that I cannot come to a like conclusion, for I have always seen them devote themselves to the same * _ labors of cutting off and transporting the leaves, etc., and this without indicating a higher development of instinct in” any way. Probably their special role, if they have one, is | borne in the excavation of the nest and in tunnelling the gal- leries, labors which demand a superior strength and better implements. “The nest of Gicodoma serves as a habitation for many parasitic lodgers: some serpents, and particularly certaiti insects, which there undergo their metamorphoses. dig- ging up their nests in the spring, one never fails to find there some large species of Scarabæides. One also very o! sees a great number of males of a wasp, Flis costalis Lep-s ’ int ing questi hich I have not yet had an opport to solve, the females of Elis deposit their eggs in the bodies of the larve of Scarab At Tehuacan (Dep't of Puebla) where the Scolia Azteca Sauss. is very common, it Particularly abundant in the leather tanneries, which leads me to think that the fema also deposit their eggs under the epidermis of the larvæ which ab NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 69 flying about these nests, and resting themselves upon the dead branches which happen to be there, thus, I feel well assured, awaiting the coming forth from these of the females of their species which have entered into the formicary. * At the commencement of the rainy season, after the first storms of the season, the Œcodoma begins the work of re- production. The union of the sexes probably takes place during the night, for in the morning one finds the neighbor- hood of the formicary strewn with the dead bodies of the males and the females, the latter already fertile, from whom the workers make it their duty to tear away their wings. “The ravages committed by the Gicodoma* in inhabited places, both by the surface which their nest removes from cultivation, and by the number of trees which they despoil of their leaves, are at times considerable, and demand very great watchfulness on the part of the cultivators. They have essayed a thousand ways to put an end to the havoc which these cause. The only mode which offers a sure chance of success is the removal, the extraction of the whole nest. For this purpose they dig a trench of sufficient depth around the whole, then carry away the dome or hillock and the walls of the nest, until, arriving at the cells of the larve, they destroy them and also the eggs. The perfect insects which escupe the ruin of their colony then disappear never to return. t “The coffee plantations, which demand a light soil, are fre- quently chosen by the hormigas arrieras as places in which tó construct their nests; and one can easily imagine the loss which they cause to the proprietors, if these last do not con- in the tan. [The Senrabeus ji beetle. Scolia is a wasp is a 1 z $ Bg A én ne allied to Elis; neither have been supposed hitherto to be parasitic insects. Their P y auy mem oo is ** At least the Œc. Mexicana, for the Œc. hystrix, which also I have apenas ar ee ee ee Y 5 P OT GN S . so 4 ae + doing y mage. may be well to add that Orizaba is in the temperate, Cordova between the and hot, and Tehuacan in the cold regions or zones of Mexico. Mr. Bates reer the Œc. hystrix that he once “found a vast number in a low meadow, carrying y rs iieii Aat ae + Ft p + led i Is This was in Brazil. x “= 70 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS, tinue an active and daily surveillance over the manceuvres of these insects.” on It seems desirable to add the testimony of Mr. Bates as to the Gc. cephalotes, the common species of South America. “This insect, from its ubiquity, immense numbers, eternal industry, and its plundering. propensities, becomes one of the most important animals of Brazil. Its immense hosts — are unceasingly occupied in defoliating trees, and those most | relished by them are precisely the useful and cultivated | kinds. They have regular divisions of laborers, numbers — mounting the trees and cutting off the leaves in irregularly | rounded pieces the size of a shilling, another relay carrying © them off as they fall.” “The heavily laden fellows, as they came trooping in, all deposited their load in a heap close to the mound. About the mound itself were a vast number of workers of a smaller size. The very large-headed ones face, three burrows, each about an inch in diameter ; half @ foot downward, all three united in one tubular burrow about four inches in diameter. To the bottom of this I could not reach when I probed with a stick to the depth of four five feet. This tube was perfectly smooth and covered a vast number of workers of much smaller size than species. Besides the greatly enlarged size of the head, they have an ocellus in the middle of the forehead; t latter feature, added to their startling appearance from cavernous depths of the formicarium, gave them qu Cyclopean character.” Of another species, the Ge. sexdentata, Mr. Smith quo NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. 71 from Rev. Hamlet Clark, that at Constancia, Brazil, the proprietor of a plantation used every means to exterminate it and failed. “Sometimes in a single night it will strip an orange or lemon tree of its leaves; a ditch of water around his garden, which quite keeps out all other ants, is of no use. This species carries a mine under its bed without any diffi- culty. Indeed, I have been assured again and again by sen- sible men, that it has undermined, in its progress through the country, the great river Pariaba. At any rate, without anything like a natural or artificial bridge, it appears on the other side and continues its course.” This testimony is con- firmed by Mr. Lincecum (Proceedings of Academy of Natural Seiences, Philadelphia, 1867, p. 24) in an interesting account of the Œc. Texana, which he has observed for eighteen years. He states that they often carry their subterranean roads for several hundred yards in grassy districts, where the grass would prove an impediment to their progress. On one oceasion, to secure access to a gentleman’s garden, where they were cutting the vegetables to pieces, they tun- nelled beneath a creek which was at that place fifteen or twenty feet deep, and from bank to bank about thirty feet. He also observes that the smaller workers which remain around the nest do not seem to join in cutting or carrying the leaves, but are occupied with bringing out the sand, and generally work in a lazy way, very differently from the quick, active leaf-cutters. Also that the pieces of leaves are usually dried outside before being carried in, and that if wet by a sudden shower are left to decay without. He also thinks that their lives are dependent upon access to water, and that they always choose places where it is accessible by digging wells. In one case, a well was dug by Mr. Pearson for his own use, and water found at the depth of thirty feet. The ant-well which he followed was twelve inches in di- ameter. The genus Cryptocerus belongs to another subfamily, Cryptoceride, founded on the form of the head, which is 72 NOTES ON MEXICAN ANTS. more or less flattened above, with the sides expanded into flattened marginal plates, concealing or partly hiding the eyes. The peduncle consists of two nodes, the corslet is spinose, and the face is grooved in front for the reception l of the antennæ. Cryptocerus laminatus Smith. (Journal of Entomology, 1860, p. 77.) Brazil. “This species lives at Cordova, m the same places as the next, but it is rarer and more soh tary.” Cryptocerus multispinosus. (Fig. 11.) This is the most common species of Cryptocerus in the environs of Cordova, where it lives in the trunk of certain trees, especially those of — the Croton sanguiferum, Cedrela odorata, Spondias chilias,* 7 etc. These ants show little vivacity, remaining stationary 4 — good part of the day at the entrance of the holes which con- duct to their nest. In the middle of the day one sees them | running about fallen trunks, without apparent order or aim. When one attempts to seize them, they elevate the abdomen while running, after the manner ascribed to another kind of ant, the Cechintonadies Montezumia. Note.—The new species mentioned in this paper will soon be | scribed in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute. EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. Fig. 1. Formica fulvacea, worker major. Fig. 2. Tapinoma tomentosa, worker. Fig. 3. Polyrhachis arboricola, worker; a, side view of thorax and Fig. 4. Extatomma ferruginea, worker; a, side view of the peduncle abdomen. Fig. 5. i Mexicana, worker major; a, front view of the head. Fig. 6. Eciton Mexicana, worker minor, with a front view of the he Fig. 7. Eciton Sumichrasti, worker minor. ig. Fig. = Gicodoma Mexicana, worker major. Fig. 11. Cryptocerus multispinosus, worker. American Naturalist. Vol. Il. PL. Fig. 3. - e . THE MOTTLED OWL IN CONFINEMENT. BY C. J. MAYNARD. [The following interesting account of this bird was sent me for inser- tion in my “ Birds of North America,” which I have in preparation. As it throws considerable light on the disputed question of the color of the bird’s plumage in the first year, I send it to the NATURALIST, hoping that it may bring out, from other observers, new facts in relation to this spe- cies. In presenting it, I will briefly say that I have found two other birds in the first year’s plumage which were decidedly gray; but these are the only instances that I have aee although I have examined a great number of specimens. Whether we have two species un Scops, or e most correct.—E. A On June 15, 1867, I observed some boys around a small owl which was perched ona stick. On closer examination I found that it was a young Mottled Owl (Scops asio Bona- parte). It was staring about in a dazed manner and seemed half stupefied. I easily persuaded the boys to part with it for a trifle, and took it home. I should judge that it was about two weeks old. It was covered with a grayish down. I put it in a large cage, and gave it some meat which it ate, but not readily, for it seemed frightened at the sight of my hand, and at my near approach would draw back, snapping its beak after the manner of all owls. It soon grew tamer, however, and would regard me with a wise stare, as if per- fectly understanding that I was a friend. In a short time it would take food from me without fear ; I never saw it drink, although water was kept constantly near it. Its food consisted of mice, birds, and butchers’ meat, on which it fed readily. I kept the bird caged for about two weeks, during which time it became quite tame, but would not tolerate handling, always threatening me with its beak when my hands approached it. As the wires of its cage broke its feathers when moving about, and as it hardly AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 10 (73) 74 THE MOTTLED OWL IN CONFINEMENT. seemed resigned to confinement, I opened its cage and gave — it the freedom of the room, leaving the windows open night — and day. About this time I gave it the name of “Scops,” to d which in a little while it would answer, when called, witha ` low rattle, which sounded like the distant note of the king- | ) fisher. l One morning Scops was missing ; ; diligent search was 4 made for it, = no owl could be found, mid, reluctantly, we d gave it up for lost. Once or twice it was seen in the neig paii woods by different people, and once on the roof of a barn, but was wild and refused to be caught. It had been absent about a week, when, one morning, I was told that my — owl was out in the yard. I hastened out and found a halt — grown Newfoundland dog playing with my pet. The owl | was clinging to his shaggy fur with its claws, snapping its beak, and biting fiercely. I immediately rescued poor Scops — and carried it into the house. It was raining hard, and the bird was wet through. On arriving in its ola quarters it seemed pleased, chuckling to itself after its manner. It was almost starved, and ate two full-grown blue-birds at the first meal. After this time I gave it the privilege of going ¢ coming when it pleased, but, mindful of its former experi- ence, it never has but once remained away more than two days at a time. It now became more attached to me t ever, and will, at this time, permit me to pat it gently. — When a bird is given it for food, it takes it in its claws and with its beak invariably pulls out the wing and t feathers first, then eats the head, then devours the intestines: then, if not satisfied, it eats the remainder of the bird, feath- ers and all. i” That this owl sees tolerably well in the daytime I have proved to my satisfaction. I caught a mouse and put upon a bench near Scops, who was attentively watching ™ movements ; the moment it saw the mouse, the owl op THE MOTTLED OWL IN CONFINEMENT. 75 side, then came down with an unerring aim, burying its talons deep in the head and back of the mouse. Looking up into my face, and uttering its rattling note, as if inquiring “Is’nt that well done?” it flew up to its perch with its strug- gling prey grasped firmly in its talons, where it killed the mouse by biting it in the head and back. During the whole act it displayed considerable energy and excitement. Again, I have seen it pounce on a dragon-fly which was unable to fly, but laid buzzing on the bench; the bird went through the same manceuvres as before, striking the dragon- fly with the greatest precision, and with both feet. I think that these instances prove that the bird can see nearly as well in the day as in the night. In both the above instances the sun was not shining on the objects struck, but they were very near the window, and the light was consequently strong. Scops will, in taking birds from my hand, almost always look up in my face and utter its subdued rattle. In sleeping, it usually stands on one foot, both eyes shut, but sometimes stretches out at full length, resting on its breast. When sound asleep it awakes instantly on its name being. pro- nounced, and will answer as quickly as when awake. I have heard it utter its peculiar quavering note,on one or two occasions, which, notwithstanding its reputed mournfulness, has much that sounds pleasant to my ears. When moving along a plane surface, Scops progresses, with a half walk, half hop, which is certainly not the most graceful gait pos- sible. When out at night among the trees Scops acts in much the same manner as when in the house, hopping from limb to limb, looking about with a quick, graceful motion of the head, sometimes turning the head around so that the face comes directly behind. When it returns to the house in the morning, daylight is often long passed, and even sunrise. The alarm note is a kind of low moan; this was often uttered at the sight of a tamed 76 THE MOTTLED OWL IN CONFINEMENT. gray squirrel (but with which it has now become better iac- | quainted), and always at the sight of its old enemy, the dog. ; While flying, Scops moves thanieh the air with a quick, — steady motion, alighting on any object without missing a : foothold. I never heard it utter a note when thus moving. — = When perching, it does not grasp with its claws, but holds them at some distance from the wood, clasping with the soles of the toes. When it has eaten enough of a bird, it hides the remaining portions in any convenient place near : by; if its hiding-place is then approached, the owl from its — perch watches the intruder jealously, and when its hidden 4 spoils are touched, it lays back its ear-like tufts, snaps its beak once or twice, and drops down on the unlucky hand : iy like an arrow, striking it with its sharp claws until the hand . is withdrawn; then, ascertaining that its treasure is safe, Scops resumes its perch, idohing at its late disturber with ~ most unfriendly eyes. : metimes in the daytime it will take a sudden start, flit- : ting about the room like a spectre, alighting on different objects to peer about, which it does by moving sideways J turning the head in various directions, and going through — many curious movements ; but it always returns to its perch : and settles down quietly. : I once placed a stuffed owl of its own species near it, when J it ruffled its feathers, gave a series of hisses, moans, snappings of the beak, and stretched out one wing at ful length in front of its head as a shield to repulse what it p to be a stranger invading its own domains. As the st bird was pushed nearer, Scops budged not an inch, bu looked fiercer than ever; its ruffled back-feathers were erected high, its eyes sparkled, and its whole attitude 1 one of war. Some time since the building in ah my pet was Kep was torn down, and the bird was absent for two weeks; DU! a new building has been erected near the site of the old o and to-day I found Scops in the new cellar, sitting on a Jro- ROCK RUINS. TT jecting stone of the wall, as much at home as in the old place. From this it can be seen that its affection for locality is very strong. Notwithstanding Scops’ long absence it is as tame as ever, taking its food from my hand, and behaving in the old manner. Its plumage at this time (Oct. 31, 1867) is perfect, most of the feathers having recently changed. It is mostly gray; there are but few marks of red, and but a faint wash of cream-color on the back, not red. In your book on the “Birds of New England” are given two instances of this bird’s first plumage being in the red; but my bird’s is decidedly in the gray. If it is red at all, it must be at some time hereafter. You also mention one occurrence of the young bird in the gray plumage, and,to give an additional example, I would, for the benefit of stu- dents, add one from my own experience. ROCK RUINS. BY A. HYATT. I was accosted once by a gray-headed patriarch, moe at the door of his farm-house, with these words: “I hav heard of you, and wished to see you; my neighbors tell me that you are a rock-hunter.” After many questions he con- tinued: “I have read nothing but this,’—holding up the well-thumbed family Bible, —“and seen nothing but that,” —pointing to the extensive landscape the house afforded, — “and yet,” said he, “a long life spent with them both before me, has given me more to think about than I can master. The rains pour down their floods upon these hills till every little hollow holds a muddy rivulet which ,empties into that silver thread you see yonder, until it too is a broad, yellow current. It has struck me, stranger, that those rains, in the hands of the Almighty, are the instruments which have cut 78 ROCK RUINS. and shaped these hills about us, and that great valley you: der. Do you men who study rocks think so too?” w The old man, without other help than his own eyes and appreciative love of nature, fostered by the daily contemp tion of a fine landscape, had unconsciously retraced the pri- mary steps of geological history, and rediscovered the f that water is one of the great agents of change upon the earth’s surface. He had seen it working, and comprehended how it slowly, but with irresistible power, melting down hills, fur- rowing out valleys, and casting the muddy flow through thousand channels into the sea. The patient contemplata of a view such as one often meets with,—a quiet valley sleeping between parallel ranges of hills, with wrinkled si and bald summits, had taught him this. When we should wish, however, to describe the effect water upon the face of our continent, it is not best to begil with such complicated examples, but good sense dictates th introduction of a few special cases wherein water is eviden the sole agent of change. Thus a ladder is presented to h mind by which it may climb to the comprehension of th panorama, instead of being presented at once with ger laws, and then carried down backward upon the rounds 0 fact and explanation. ra Perhaps but very few of the thousands who annually that Mecca of the travelling public, Niagara, are aware it furnishes one of these examples, and is so often a for geological writers and lecturers. Visitors pay the e tionate prices of admission to its various points of view, # made giddy by the mad whirl of the rapids, stunned by t roar of the water, and awe-struck by the vibrations of t earth, and yet do not intelligently comprehend the mea of all this turmoil and uproar. They read in the gt books the meagre notice of the fact, that the cataract once at Lewiston and has eaten its way back through solid rock to its present position. Some accept the § ROCK RUINS. 79 ment. as children a fairy tale, some doubt without the ability to give a valid reason, and some, fearing the sudden de- struction of their dream-land, refuse to analyze the glories of the river. They shrink from familiarity with nature, lest water should prove itself nothing but water, and stone noth- ing but stone, entirely ignorant of the fact, that the close observer, whether poet, artist, or naturalist, is the only one who seeks the spirit of the beautiful with success. He alone grasps the internal creative thought, the soul embodied in the landscape, without which the rocks, rivers, and moun- tains, with their green garlands, are comparatively expres- sionless forms, like faces without eyes. Along the sides of the gorge at Niagara a few of the great layers which make up the body of the continent are seen rising one after another, overlapping at the surface like tiles on a nearly horizontal roof;* the inclination of the layers, in fact, being only about twenty-five feet to the mile, in a southerly direction. Out of the cloud and foam of the cataract appear two lay- ers, each about eighty feet thick, the upper one (8) of lime- stone, the under (7) of shale. Still farther northward,.above the debris that has accumulated at the foot of the cliffs, runs a thinner layer of limestone (6), and, continuing in the same direction, we find a layer of green shale (5) succeeded soon by one of light-colored sandstone (4), and lastly a mass of red sandstone (3). Thus, when we reach Suspension Bridge it is compara- tively easy even for an unpractised eye to analyze the cliff. Attracted by the emerald curtain of the great fall, few = vouchsafe more than a passing glance down the chasm, and yet in autumn this view is one of rare beauty. The alter- nate bands of color in the rocks blend with the fringe of golden and scarlet trees upon the żalus at their feet, and from every crevice graceful vines hang their lace-work of flaming foliage. The painted walls and their gorgeous ta- *Vide 8, 8’, 9, 4 tA in th W ad-ent 80 ROCK RUINS. pestries rise nearly three hundred feet on either side, and at that dizzy depth, the river glides on, a flood of green and ; silver, till the harder rocks in the shallower chao beyond ] obstruct the current and hurl its waves fifteen feet in l air. Below the whirlpool these harder rocks appear as a light colored, gritty sandstone (2), underlaid by a soft red s stone (1).. Even to the most couse observer it and filled the gorge, pai as it is now apparent that the higher limestone and shale are continuous under the k : (d, f). sad The recession of the present falls is an established fi Father Hennepin, one of the early French explorers, scribed and figured Niagara as early as 1678. Then it three distinct parts beatead of two, as at present. On the Canada side a tabular rock of great size extended out intet- rupting and turning a portion of the overflow in an easter) direction, making a third fall at right angles, but continuous with the horse-shoe. About seventy years afterwards Danish naturalist, Kalm, records the disappearance of rock, and describes the fall as having about the same gen outline as at present. His sketch, however, does not materially from Father Hennepin’s, except in the ab of the third fall. Parts of Table Rock fell successively } 1818, 1828, and 1829, and Kalm speaks of the descent ol portions of this rock, which extended under the water p vious to his visit in 1750. : All these changes were on the Canada side, and, a been already noticed by Professor Jules Marcou, that part the cataract recedes the most rapidly. The volume of ¥ is much greater, some twenty-five feet in depth in the cê of the horse-shoe curve, and the mass of debris, is so picturesque along the base of the American $ entirely wanting, the layers ‘of rock being carved out pe dicularly, probali to a considerable depth below the § ROCK RUINS. 81 of the river. Professor Jules Marcou, who visited Niagara in 1848-49 and 1850, remarked not only the changes which occurred in the Table Rock,* part of which fell in 1850, but observed also the increasing angularity of the curve at the centre of the horse-shoe, and the gradual deepening of the water. It seems certain that either the size of the river has greatly decreased since Father Hennepin’s visit, or else this part of the horse-shoe fall is much deeper and the sides shallower than formerly. In 1850, according to Pro- fessor Marcou, the curve was passably regular; in 1863, it was very much deeper, and notched near the centre. He also noticed that a large block, some six or seven feet in diameter, which had stood near the Terrapin Tower, had been engulfed, and together with it a long line of boulders figured by Professor Hall in his map of 1842. In 1852, por- tions of the cliff at this point fell, making a sensible differ- ence in its outline, and probably caused the disappearance of the boulders. The manner in which the tables of rock are undermined is as well known as the recession of the cataract itself. Every visitor is informed that the water, dashing against the lower layer of soft shale (7), cuts out cavernous hollows like the “Cave of the Winds,” and presently the projecting tables of limestone above (8), becoming too weak to support themselves, and the great weight of the river, are precipi- tated in immense masses to the bottom. These huge fragments, with every point and fractured edge rounded and smoothed by the ceaseless bombardment of the water, lie in huge piles under the American fall. There is no continuous flow, but a succession of blows, and one standing near them, feeling this distinct pulsation, as wave after wave rushes over the precipice and descends with a deafening roar upon the polished surfaces, no longer won- ders that the rocks are worn slippery, but rather that they *This is a tabular extension of the upper limestone on the Canadian side close to tho cataract. It once extended out some distance, and was probably te bos mennant Lid fall G + 82. ROCK RUINS. are not shattered like brittle glass under a trip-hammer, and swept away. =- We must, however, even before this exhibition of power, remember that water is not the only instrument which is carving out the softer shales. Wherever these are uncov- | ered, as in the “Cave of the Winds,” they are cased in ice during the winter. Experience has taught us all how the frost loosens the bricks of the side-walks, throws down mas- sive stone-walls, and bursts our water-pipes. All these effects are not due to any miraculous power possessed by frost, but to the fact that water when freezing expands and forces room for its increasing volume. In the crevices of the shale it acts quietly but with resistless force between the | layers, like millions of minute wedges lifting and loosening the edges of the rock-beds, which are thus rendered an easy prey to the waves, if they do not fall of themselves in the early spring. Goat Island recedes almost as fast as the cata- ract itself, and yet frost alone is the workman that under- mines its rocky face. The future of the cataract may be read in the stru ure of the rocks, as well as its past. Professor Hall, who has studied it more carefully than any other geologist, pre dicts that Niagara is slowly but surely destroying i 3 Thousands of years hence and the cataract will have eaten its way back until the solid limestone layers, which are 2 on its verge, will be at its base (i, k). Here it will prot bly remain for a long time almost stationary. The low portion being as hard as the upper, will not be eaten 4 into caves and hollows as at present, but, being less expos! will give way even more slowly than the upper limest | These last, however, notwithstanding their hardness, ` be gradually worn down, as the hard layers (2) are a whirlpool (c), or the limestones on the bed of the $ above the present fall (8’) to the ascending level © river bed, as at d in the wood-cut. The softer laye greenish marl, marked 9, will have been already lev Sy slic s ROCK RUINS. Section of the strata along the Niagara River, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Lake Ontario. EXPLANATIONS. 1, Red shaly sandstone and marl, which may be seen in thé bank of the river at Lewiston (j). 2, Gray quartzose sandstone. 3, Red shaly sandstone like No. 1 (with thin courses of sandstone near the top). 4, Gray and mottled sandstone, constituting, with those 6, Compact gray limestone, which with No. 5 consti- tutes the Clinton Group at this place. 7, Soft argillo-calcareous shale. 8, Limestone. 8', The upper thin-bedded limestone, which, together with 7 and 8, constitutes the Niagara group. 9, Onondaga salt group of shales and marls, including the hydraulic limestone, or beds of passage to the next rock. 10, Onondaga and Corniferous limestones. All these layers, from 1-10 inclusive, belong to the upper Silurian system. h, g, f, d, ¢, j, This line represents the present surface of the river from Lake Erie to Lewiston, a distance of about twenty-one miles. h, g, The present surface of the river, between Lake Erie and the Falls. d, f, The perpendicular fall, over the Niagara limestone and shale. f, g, The rapids, where within a mile there is a descent of fifty-two feet over the upper thin-bedded portion of the Niagara limestone. c, The whirlpool. d, c, j, Present level of the river where it has cut its way down through all the layers from 1 to 8! inclu- sive. i, k, The position of the falls and rapids after a reces- sion of two miles. a, i, d, Future level of the river bed, as the falls gradu- ~~ fessor Hall’s Report on the Geology of New York. . 84 ROCK RUINS. and Niagara, with perhaps a slight descent over the time stones (10) at the outlet of Lake Erie, will be uninterrupted in its course to Lake Ontario. According to the estimate of Sir Charles Lyell, shoal thirty-five thousand years ago the falls were at Lewiston. | Now they are seven miles away, and have yet two miles to traverse, each step harder and more difficult as the becomes thinner, before they reach the point (č), where, — should they preserve their present structure, they will no be over one hundred feet high. Following out Sir Charles | Lyell’s estimate, this would ako ten thousand years, even if the disappearance of the shale. Although these calculi | are based upon the observed rate of retrogression of the fi i they can only be very rough approximations, until sufficient | time has elapsed for other observations to be made and com- pared with the monuments erected by Professor Hall in 1842. They are, however, sufiiciently close and reliable to $ that Niagara was not carved out in a day, nor yet in a th sand years ; but that for tens of thousands of years the stea rush of the river has ground the rocks to powder, and swe away, piece by piece, the solid layers, until the gorge it cut is now seven miles long, from two to three hundred fifty feet deep, and eight to twenty-four hundred feet ¥ at the top. Of late, the public have been alarmed by the sta that about half a mile back of the horse-shoe, the motio g the stream indicate a breach in the upper limestone, % ; speculations are indulged in that through this hole a $ terranean stream is eating away the underlying shale great rapidity. The sagacious inhabitants, who have gI% birth to this story, predict the probable destruction of t i great cataract by the caving in of the tables of limestone with such rapidity that the whole will form only & It is difficult to understand, first, how such a breach ¢ have been made; second, how if made it could swa THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. 85 enough of the river to eat away any considerable portion of the shale underneath; and third, if it did both of these im- practicabilities, how the subterranean stream could break down the face of the fall faster than the water could carry off the fragments and maintain the face of the precipice per- pendicular. We do not desire, however, to deprive either the guides or the oldest inhabitants of their time-honored privilege of astonishing the public, but they should remem- ber and take warning from the fate of the “reliable contra- band ;” they may, even as he did, — their hold upon the credulity of the public. THE CRUISE OF THE ‘ABROLHOS.” BY C. FRED. HARTT. RECIFE DO LIXO, ABROLHOS, AT LOW TIDE. AFTER one has travelled up and down the Brazilian coast and become familiar with the long sea-beaches, bordered with ridges or domes of sand, that almost uninterruptedly stretch front the Amazonas to Cape Frio, and with the ever- thundering Atlantic surf that draws its foamy line around those Ts shores, it seems strange to see at Caravellas a 86 THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. coast scarcely elevated above the water, and a beach waibiill by a sea as quiet as an inland lake. The water here ioiii shore is very shallow, owing to the very gentle slope of the bottom, and not only for that reason is it quiet, but because very extensive reefs, lying between the main-land and the islands of the Abrolhos, break the force of the waves, md protect the coast. iE I hired at Caravellas, for the exploration of the Abrolhos — region, a little launch, the Abrolhos, and three men, the | captain being a Dane, who for many years had followed the life of a fisherman among the Abrolhos reefs, and, as it wil hereafter be seen, konmsi them perfectly. $ It was a glorious morning early in last September, the | month that closes the Biadiiian winter, that we embarked. Up went the long, narrow, triangular sails to the § masts, Jaco blew from his big horn a few cornet-like notes, that went breaking with strange echoes through the cocoi- palm groves on the river bank below the town, and we dropped down stream. Next day, for we had been delayed — at the mouth of the river, we were beating by dawnlight ott of the entrance. After sticking fast on a sand-bank or two: we soon stood off towards the islands. Near the shore ™ water was very turbid and reddish; but leaving the land 5 soon became clearer, and the yellowish tint gave way ' green. The sounding-line showed a depth of about six metres, with a white sandy bottom, which gave to the a whitish appearance. There was not a cloud in the sky; and the low sun looked warmly down on the waves ripp under the last breath of the dying land-breeze. 2 About seven miles from the land I observed that water ahead was spotted by dark brownish patches of ¢ irregular in outline, and resembling the shadows cast ? little clouds. Occasionally one might mark the break? of a wave over one of these patches. “These are thel peirões,” * said Jacó. This is the name given in B * Pronounced Shipayrdéngs. The singular is “ Chapeirão,” pronounced ghăpat THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. 87 isolated coral structures, which are very common on the Brazilian reef-grounds. Corals grow over the bottom in small patches, and without spreading much, rise often to a height of forty to fifty or more feet, like towers, and some- times attain the level of low tide. At the top they are usually very irregular, and sometimes spread out like mush- rooms, or, as the fishermen say, umbrellas. Some of these Chapeirées are only a few feet in diameter. Two Chapeirédes are seen in the foreground of the engraving of the Recife do Lixo. Professor Verrill tells me that similar structures occur also in the West Indies. We soon came up to one and passed almost over it. They were of all heights, and on the larger the waves were breaking. The sea was full of them, a perfect labyrinth, through which our skilful captain readily tacked is way. In some places a good-sized ship might sail among them, but it would not be i to venture among them in dark or stormy weather. As we threaded our way through, Jacó and the sailors told me stories of the whale and other fisheries carried on here, of their adventures while eng in their hardy pursuits in these waters, and how vessels sometimes ran on the Chapeirées, sticking fast by the middle of the keel, to the amazement of the captain, who found deep water all round, the vessel being perched, as it were, - like a weather-cock on the top of a tower. Occasionally, I am told, the shock is sufficient to break off and upset some of the slender ones, for they are not very compact. After a while we came out once more into open water. The reef-ground we had crossed is known as the Parédes, or walls. Fiii north to south itis fifteen to twenty miles in length, while its width varies from three to nine miles. Where we crossed it, nearly in the middle, there are only Chapeirses; but farther north, as well as farther south, there are extensive reefs laid bare at low tide over an area of many square miles; but these I did not visit until -p return voyage. On finishing my examination of the islands, of which I 88 THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. have already given a description in my last article, I set out on the evening of the 12th of September to visit the north ernmost reef of the Parédes, called the Recife do Lixo. My — plan was to cross the reef that night at high tide, and anchor i in a sac or little bay on the western-side, so as to profit i the low tide of the full moon of the morrow. Eastward the islands a few miles, with a length of about nine to miles, and a breadth in some places of four miles, is an over which Chapeirões grow very abundantly, forming 0 structions on which many a vessel has been wrecked. Th unite nowhere to form a large reef, and are rarely anywhere uncovered at low tide. Ordinarily, vessels and steamships go outside of th reefs to the eastward, in sight of the islands. It is not i however, to calculate one’s distance from a point at sea, and especially from a light by night, and many vessels, notwith- standing the light-house, have been wrecked upon the West of the islands there is deep water, there are no Che rões, and between the islands and the Parédes there is & channel about eight miles in width, with plenty of water anl no obstructions. The safest way is to pass to the westw of the islands, when one may run close in shore, so long the course is north or south. There is then no danger W ever, and there is a smoother sea. On the return voy from Rio, the American steamship “South America” was, the suggestion of the writer, taken through this channel. Varying winds drove the launch “Abrolhos” into the gion of the Chapeirées to the north-easfward of the islands. Jaco and I took turns in heaving the lead. Among Chapeirées we found a depth of sixteen to twenty me _ and once, while becalmed, we found twenty metres along one Chapeirio, and three metres on top. Waiting for wind, the hooks were used, and we soon had, flound about below among my boxes of corals, some fine Gua pas. By and by the wind freshened and we set out to ¢ the channel, sounding all the way, finding a depth of se Pre t THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. 89 teen to twenty-nine metres, a bottom composed of sand and shells, and no impediment to navigation. The almost tull moon made the night wellnigh as light as day. Late at night I turned in below, and, with the sound of waves outside and the wash of the bilge-water and the occa- sional floundering of the not yet dead fish inside, dreamed of home, while Jaco and the men ever and anon heaved the lead, calling out the number of metres. At last the voice of a sailor was heard at the hatch, “O Seu Carlos! O recife?!” The reef! I went hastily on deck in the moonlight. Splash went the lead. “Dous metros,”—only two metres of water. We are on the reef. I rolled myself in my great coat and stretched myself out on the deck listening to the splash of the lead, and gazing at the big cumulus clouds, lit up by the . Moon, and memory carried me back to long rides along the sea-beaches farther south, to many a bivouac under the clear dewy sky, when the slow march of the tardily gliding hours was marked by the sinking of the moon among the waving, glistening, giant fronds of the cocoa-palm, or w the South- ern Cross, that, like a great hour-hand, swung round the southern pole, and with the monstrous modinha of the steersman I fell asleep. “ Dez metros!” cries Jacó, “O Carlos ! we are in the chan- nel.” The great reef of the Parédes is deeply indented, according to fishermen, by two very irregular channels, which, entering it from the north, almost separate it into three parts, very much as the island of Cape Breton is cut up by the Bras dOr. We had crossed the outer reef and reached the eastern channel, which is very narrow. In this way, with the sounding-line in hand, we crossed the reef, and anchored just on the inner side to wait for the morning. e sun rose and Jacé wound his horn. Here we were just off the reef and alongside the sac for which we had steered. As the tide went down, the reef began to uncover itself, and became dry over a very large area, as far north and south as we could see from ihe daek of our little vessel. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. I. 90 THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. As soon as the falling tide had sufficiently defined our litt harbor, we sailed in, and anchored close to the reef. Itoo a basket with cans and bottles, and leaped on the reef, © taking with me two men with a ¢araffa, a kind of round — casting net, to take fish in the pools. ie The’ reef, exposed at low tide, was level on top, and th corals, as at the Abrolhos, were generally dead and cove by barnacles, ete. It was exceedingly irregular and ngge in outline, and deeply indented by little bays. : face were many large pools (see sketch), in which I foun beautiful specimens of Millepora alcicornis, Siderastr Favia, ete., together with two or three species of gorgo nia belonging to the genera Hymenogorgia, Plexaurella and B nicia. Turning over the loose corals in the pond, I found a of interesting things, sea-urchins (Lchinometra Michel crimson starfishes (Echinaster crassispina Verrill), toget with many odd crabs. There is a curious little crustacea p0 which there appears to be more than one species on the ¢oas of Brazil, called the Tamar. I used to be much pu = the claws. These Tamaris are very abundant, living in ti holes in the reefs, and I have more than once, when sa over a reef, heard their musical click in the water un neath me. There is a whole group of shrimp-like € ceans, whose hind-body is unprotected by a shell, and 1 are called hermit-crabs, from their taking up their abode | dead shells. I found one large hermit-crab on this which was occupying a rather large shell on which seated a sea-anemone. It is a strange companionship W has been observed to exist between other species else The reef is not very rich in shells. E One of the men threw the round net successfully some charming little fishes in the ponds, and we soon THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. 91 large collection of things, which we carried to the edge of the reef. The tide by this time had gone down farther, and the water was low enough on the border of the reef to allow one to wade all over and examine it. The very edge of the reef where the waves washed at low tide is higher than else- where, partially owing to a better opportunity being offered for the growth of corals, but also to a luxuriant growth of serpule, barnacles, etc. From this line the reef slopes gently down to the edge,* where it drops down perpendicularly into deep water, as at the islands. This border, where the water was of little depth, and where the bottom was never exposed at low tide, may be at times very narrow, or even a hundred feet or more in width. It is a perfect garden of corals. Do you wonder, my reader, that the writer felt a little bit excited as he waded about, up to his waist in water, over these coral beds? The whole reef is alive. Here is a big head of Acanthas- trea Braziliensis Verrill. We must have that, so down we bend to tear it away from the reef. A wave goes over our head, but what of that? the prize is secured. We tug away to tear up the fronds of the gorgonias, and toss them over the edge of the reef into a pool of water. Now we fill ‘our arms, never so carefully, with pretty pink rosettes of Millepora nitida Verrill, which we are careful about hand- ling, because of their stinging properties. These are safely lodged on the reef, and we wade out once more to the very edge of the reef (never mind the sharks!). Here are beautiful clusters of the pretty Mussa, with which Professor Verrill has done the writer the honor of associating his name, that look like great bouquets of whitish pinks. What a pity that we cannot pluck them whole, for they break up and go all to pieces, while the polyps out of water lose all their beauty ! But I shall make this paper too long, if I stop to enume- rate all the beautiful things of this garden of the sea; the eri eR A +» iv: zt tn tha eckatch. 92 THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. tide is coming in, and we must be in haste. We have yet time, however, for a short walk over the reef. The tide creeps over the reef. Our specimens are tram ferred to the deck of the launch, and we put out of our little = harbor, with a sigh that our exploration in the Abrolh waters are ended. The depth alongside the reef at low water varies ‘mod being in some places but three or four, in others ten feet or t more. Just alongside the reef, at least.on the inside wher Į ever I have examined it, the bottom consists of a soft, bluish, calcareous mud. The bottom usually slopes rapidly from the reef, and one may at a short distance away in sol places find a depth of seventy to eighty feet. Generally t reef is bordered by Chapeirões. Similar reefs are found a few miles farther south at Co Vermelha and the vicinity, but I know of none still farther southward. To the north they occur at intervals witht same characters at Itacolumis, Porto Seguro, Santa Cruz, Bahia, Maceió, and along the coast in the vicinity of Pi nambuco and northward. The Rocas, a very dangerous re lying in the latitude of Fernando de Noronha is a cool and is remarkable for its annular shape, inclosing a space the centre free from corals. From the descriptions of the sailors, Corda Vermelha is the mouth of the bay of Santa Cruz. I saw a few mang" trees growing upon it. A schooner had struck on the near by, and being carried over by the wayes, had close inside the reef. From the height to which the wa reached on the mast, I estimated the height of the reef thirty feet. Fortunately we had a pleasant trip home, and late in afternoon the launch was anchored off the melting-hous¢ the Barra. A few cornet notes brought out some inhabitants to welcome the incomprehensible Natu who, landing, spont the rest of daylight in orani NOBERT’S TEST PLATE, ETC. 93 carcasses of some huge whales brought in to land since his departure. The moon rose full and round, but waned rapidly as she neared the zenith. A fine’eclipse took place which was almost total. Crowds gathered on the shore to watch the moon’s* fading light. The Americano ought to be able to explain it. He is applied to. Whereupon, by the light of an antique oil-lamp in a store near by, with a big earthen water- jar to personate thé earth, and a smaller one the moon, a lecture on the theory of eclipses was delivered to an appre- ciative audience, with heaven’s blue dome for a chart. Next day a few hundred weight of whales’ bones were added to our freight, and we moved up stream. The tiled roofs and white walls and cocoa palms of Caravellas came in view, Jaco blew his horn, and, in a few moments, with the rattle of the chain from the bow, the Cruise of the “Abrol- hos” had ended. NOBERT’S TEST PLATE AND MODERN MICROSCOPES. BY CHARLES STODDER. Every possessor of a first-class microscope wishes to know what his instrument is capable of doing. To the prac- tical worker it is a matter of much importance, for when the utmost power of his instrument is exhausted, he will know — that it is a waste of time to endeavor to see more. One 0 the desirable and important properties of a microscope is the power to show or “resolve” very fine lines grouped together, e. g. the striation of the frustules* of the diatomacee. For the purpose of testing the resolving power of the micro- scope, the lines ruled on glass by F. A. Nobert, of Barth, *A frustule (Z. frustrum, a fragment) is one of the fragments into which diatoms Separate. 94 NOBERT’S TEST PLATE Pomerania, have long been admitted by experts as the best known test, not only in consequence of their exceeding ness, but also because they are ruled to a known scale, because they are so close that* physicists have asserted it is impossible that they ever can be seen, Nobert hims being in this category ; and all trials of these plates, exe those to be herein mentioned, have resulted in failures t resolve the finer lines of these plates. - The Nobert test is a series of groups of parallel lines ruled on glass thus |i ill, each succeeding group being finer han the ee one. Different plates have a different num- ber of groups, ruled to different scales. The one used by Messrs. Sullivant and Wormly (American Journal of So ence, 1861) has thirty bands or groups, the coarsest having its lines yovv of a Paris line apart, and the finest being x yo each group or band being about zoo of an English ine width, and the whole thirty occupying a space perha little more than y of an inch. Now it is a difficult or the mind to appreciate such minute divisions of yet it is essential, in order to estimate a little the diffi of seeing such lines, to form some idea of their minut The average diameter of a human hair is about royo inch, yet in a space only one half as great in the co band of the Nobert plate there are seven lines, while 30th band there are forty-five. The plate which I have used in the trials to be detal was made in 1863. It has nineteen bands, the first bé ruled to toys of a Paris line, and each band increasing five hundred, so that the 19th is +s4oo- The following table gives in the second column the tional part of a Paris line* between the lines of each the third column, the decimal part of a line as marked on ~ plate by Nobert; the fourth, the number of lines to an lish inch; the fifth, the number of the band in a thir late corresponding in fineness. * One Paris line = .088815 of the English inch. AND MODERN MICROSCOPES. 95 Corresponding No, Paris tne penae Minne goats aad hi 1-1000 ‘ -1001 11,240 lst 2, 1-1500 .000633 8. 1-2000 .00053 22,480 4. 1-2500 .0004 5. 1-3000 .000333 6. 1-3500 Tano: F4000 .00025 44,960 8. 1-4500 9. 1-5000 .0002 56,200 15th lO. 1-5500 ll. -1-6000 .000167 67,622 20th 12... 6500 3. -7000 000143 783737 25th 4. 1+7500 84,4 15. 8000 .000125 90,074 30th 16. {8500 .000117 96,234 17. .000111 101.484 18. -1-0300 000105 107,167 19. 1=10000 .000100 112,668 Has human art ever made an instrument capable of ren- dering lines, 112,000 to an inch, visible? If not, is it possi- ble to do so? Is there anything in the laws of light, which renders it impossible to see lines so close, and therefore render useless the labors of the optician to improve his in- struments beyond a certain point? and, as a corollary, is it decided that it will be useless for the naturalist to try to investigate the structure of tissues beyond what the best existing instruments have shown? It must be borne in mind that the power of seeing a single object is not the question, but the power of distinguishing two or more objects nearly in contact. The problem is exactly the parallel of that of the power of the telescope of separating double stars. A brief sketch of what has been done, and what opinions on the problem have been expressed by eminent microscopists and opticians is essential to a full understanding of the question. Professor Quecket, in 1855, asserted that “no achromatic has yet been made capable of separating lines closer together than the -s§5s of an inch.” ‘Mr. Ross found it impossible to ascertain the position of a line nearer than sovo of an inch.” “Mr. De la Rue was unable to resolve any lines on Nobert’s test plate closer than gy$0s of an inch.” _ edition, 1862, he again alters the figures to sidvo, but adds 96 NOBERT’S TEST PLATE Dr. William B. Carpenter, in his work on the Micro ` scope, published in 1856, says, “Even the + objective will, probably not enable any band to be distinctly resolved, © whose lines are closer than yy4so of an inch. At present, therefore, the existence of lines finer than this is a matter of faith rather than of sight; but there can be no reasonable doubt that the lines do exist, and’ the resolution of them would evince the extraordinary superiority of any objective _ or of any system of illumination which should enable them © to be distinguished.” In his second edition issued in 185%, | Dr. Carpenter repeated the same remarks, but substituted ssboo for zs4ua, and then added, “There is good reason to believe that the limit of perfection (in the objective) bas now been nearly reached, since everything which seems theoreti- cally possible has been actually accomplished.” In the third nothing more. m On the other side the late Professor J. W. Bailey claimed to have seen lines as close together as toovo0 to the inch, and Messrs. Harrison and Solitt, of Hull, England, claimed to have measured lines on the diatom Amphipleura pellucida, as fine as 120,000 to 130,000 to the inch, and expressed the opinion that lines as fine as 175,000 might be seen with proper means. p To determine if possible the truth between these conflict- ing opinions, Messrs. Sullivant and Wormley (American Journal of Science, January, 1861) made an exhaustive trial of one of these “marvels of art.” They state that the opti- cal apparatus at their command was ample; it included 4 “Tolles zy objective of 160° angular aperture, —an objective of rare excellence in all respects, —besides 7; and yy obJe® PEE = inet ote Re aie a ma eS hr Re O E ecient ne ee ee a thirty bands, as previously mentioned. “Up to the 26th band (7stov) there was no serious difficulty e solving and ascertaining the position of the lines; but on this and #6 AND MODERN MICROSCOPES. 97 subsequent ones, spectral lines, that is, lines composed of two or more real lines, more or less prevailed, showing that the resolving power of the objective was approaching its limit. By a suitable penta ad however, of the illumination, these spurious lines were separated into the ultimate ones on the whole of the 26th, and very nearly on the whole of the 27th band (şīżr7); but on the 28th, and still more on the 29th, they lines of the 30th band we were unable to see, at least with any degree of certainty.” ‘ These experiments induce us to believe that the limit of the resolva- bility of lines, in the present state of the objective, is wellnigh estab- lished,” and they draw the conclusion, “that lines on the Nobert’s test plate, closer together than about yg¢oy of an inch, cannot be separated by the modern objective.’ Although the paper of Messrs. Sullivant and Wormley was republished in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, in London, and might be considered as being a challenge to the opticians and microscopists of Europe to show what they could do in resolving the test plate, yet no report can be found of any attempts to resolve the lines until 1865, when Max Schultz (Quarterly Journal of Micro- scopical Society, January, 1866) described the Nobert plate of nineteen bands, and gave the results of his trials for resolv- ing them. “The highest set he has been able to define with central illumination is the 9th, which is resolved with Hart- nack’s immersion No. 10, and Merz’s immersion system zy. With oblique illumination he has not been able with any combination to get beyond the 15th.” It will be seen by reference to the table that Schultz saw finer lines than Sulli- vant and Wormley. ‘This is the only report we can find in print from Europe. In this country we find no published results; but Mr. R. C. Greenleaf, of Boston, and the writer were well sati that they saw the lines 90,000 to the inch with a Tolles’ 3 in 1863, and the next year Mr. Greenleaf saw the same lines, unmistakably, with a Tolle? 3+. Dr. J. J. Wood- ward, of Washington, in a communication to the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, London, October, 1867, p. 13 AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 98 NOBERT’S TEST PLATE 253, states that with monochromatic light, and Powella Lealand’s 35, =, and 5 objectives, a Hartnack immersion, | No. 11, and a Wales 3, with amplifier, he satisfactorily resolved the 29th and 30th bands of Nobert’s test plate. a letter to the writer written since, Dr. Woodward infor me that the plate used was the same one used by Sulliv and Wormley, as the 30th band was the finest on that; result did not show that finer lines could not be seen. Dr Woodward informs me, that, since writing that paper, he! 3 received a Nobert plate with the nineteen bands, and that covering glass was too thick for the J; objective, but Dr. Woodward has sent to me a photograph of the 16 17th, 18th, and 19th bands, taken by Dr. Curtis with Powell and Leland 3. In the photograph, the lines of 16th and 17th bands may be counted with some difficl but if the whole band is copied, or if the bands are of width of zvo of an inch, there are not lines enough. lines of the 18th and 19th bands cannot be counted in photograph. From this it will be noticed that Dr. Wo ward has resolved finer lines than any other observer yet seen, so far as report gives us any information. _ My esteemed correspondent, M. Th. Eulenstien, of § gard, Wirtemberg, writes to me, under date of Dee. 1 1867, “I have myself resolved the 14th band with a tz P ell and Lealand, and also, but less unmistakably, with 4 11 Hartnack’s immersion, with oblique light.” “Nol himself has never seen with his highest powers higher the 14th.” “This will show you the continental state affairs.” Mr. R. C. Greenleaf and myself have lately * several objectives, and the result is appended below:* — Barta’ inmerion No bath ag op nee wee ee brian ky ks OS Lae yy ak ee ann aes ee rep E E E, AND MODERN MICROSCOPES. 99 With Tolles 4 immersion, angular aperture 170°, B eye- piece, power 550, Mr. Greenleaf and myself both saw the 19th band satisfactorily. Thus being probably the first ever to see lines of 112,000 to the inch, and establishing the fact of the visibility of such lines, contrary to the theory of the physicists. (It should, however, have been mentioned in * the proper place that Mr. Eulenstien says that Nachet claims to have seen them by sunlight recently, which claim needs some confirmation, as his No. 10 failed so completely in my hands. In the present month (January, 1868), Dr. F. A. P. Barnard writes to Mr. Greenleaf, that he had tried several objectives, naming a Spencer 34 and zy, a Tolles’ 4 and 4, a Wales }, and a Nachet immersion No. 8, equal toa 74. “The Spencer z, and the Natchet 4 broke down at about the 11th or 12th band. With the Wales 4 I got as far as ten, or perhaps eleven bands. With the Tolles’ 4 I made out distinctly ten.” In another communication he says, “the highest band I can count is the 16th.” In a more recent letter to the writer, Dr. Barnard gives the count of the lines on a portion of his plate, —corresponding as nearly as could be expected to figures given in the table up to the 14th; but the 16th band he could not count satisfactorily, different attempts giving varying results. It has been said that the resolution of the lines to the eye implies the ability to count them, but this I think is a fallacy ; a few lines of a group may be counted correctly, and then it becomes difficult to identify the line last counted and the one to be counted next. Let any one try to count the pickets in a fence, when the pickets are distinctly visible, say at a distance of 100, or 150 yards, Nachet’s immersion No. 10 = 1-21, B eye-piece, sunlight obliqu i 12th band. Tolles’ immersion 1-10, ang. ap. about 160°, B eye-piece, aara abou t 800, wunlinht ooteal o i a Oe ee i BOE RE Eee Tolles’ immersion 1-10, ang. ap. about 160°, B eye-piece, power about 800, sunlight o oblique, gee es VOR ss ot et pee ee ee Tolles’ į SOS a os ee a ee o ee ee With “ Tolles. immariisn 1-10, on another occasion I saw the. - .- +--+: * 15th 100 NOBERT’S TEST PLATE. he will find this difficulty almost insurmountable. In the microscope the micrometer is an aid in counting, but in counting lines of such exquisite fineness, either the microm- eter or the stage must be moved, and it is next to impossible to construct apparatus that can be moved at once qovooo of | an inch and no more. It would require the genius and skill — of Nobert himself to do it. sa These trials show conclusively, that it is not the great power of the objective that is important (for in many of the trials here reported the lower powers have given the best results, and the Tolles 4 immersion the best on record), but it is the skill of the optician in making the instrument. 1 have since tried the Wales’ objective dey and resolved the 13th band well,—thus doing what Mr. G. did with itin water; the inference must be that Mr. G. did not obtain its best work. he hain — Since the foregoing was written, Dr. Barnard has made more and I am well satisfied that he has seen the 19th band with 4 ptt zz and Tolles’ 4, both dry objectives. si performance fairly maa any thing yet peia either in this country or Europe. Dr arnard writes (Jan. 29), that he found that the anvi of the lines was _ eae with the very difficulties referred to above, in addition to which there is another trouble, the whole width of a band is not in perfect focus — | at once; this necessitates a slight change of focal adjustment, and any 2 change rehire it extremely difficult to fix,even with the cobweb microm- — eter, the exact line last counted. He made five counts of the 19th —_ with the zy, namely :— t nn to the English inch. 4. 106.226 to the English inch. b 108, “ “oe : 5. 115,474 3. iy t “ mean, 110,820 “ z he number, according to Nobert, is 112,668. He counts for the 15 discrep“ , 4 variation of two lines each way covers the extremes of ine Pod Greenleaf has just tried (February 7th) an immersion aren | es’ 7's. He resolved the 10th, 11th, and 12th bands perfectly ; the 1 REVIEWS. 101 was doubtful. Another trial of the Hartnack No. 10 resolved the 13th band perfectly, —the 14th doubtfully. nglish and American opticians name their objectives (i. e., the lens or lenses placed next the object, that next the eye being the eye-piece), from their magnifying power,—thus a finch objective has the same power a simple lens of 4 inch focus. Continental European makers generally distinguish their instruments by numbers; the higher numbers indicating higher powers; but as each maker has his own system, the actual power of an instrument must be ascertained by trial. Instruments also often differ from their names, and they cannot generally be depended on. The theoretical power of a ARREA is measured from an arbitrary standard of ten inches,—thus, a one inch is said to magnify ten diameters; a 4 inch, forty diameters. If aia a is taken at five inches, as it is by some, then the ‘‘ power” is but one half as much. The ‘‘ power” of the microscope is that of the bees multiplied by that of the eye-piece; if the objective "so ten diameters, and the eye-piece ten, the result is one a diameters. Angular ict is the angle in the surface of the front lens, at which light se enter the objective,—the greater ca angular aperture, the o An amplifier is an achromatic combination isori in the compound body of the instrument to increase the ‘‘power” of the objective and eye-piece iarston lenses have lately attracted great attention, though they were made by Amici many years since. e objective is immersed in water, —that is, there is a film of water between the front of the object- ive and the object, or the thin glass covering it. The effect is a great in- crease of light, and better definition. REVIEWS. ANIMAL NATURE OF SPONGES.*—Many opinions have been ex- ‘aaa with regard to the animal nature of the sponge, which h has been considered as a plant by most authors, but nothing of a reliable or ge nite nature had appeared before a paper by Mr. Carter in the PERE Magazine of Natural History, for April, 1857. In this paper it w shown that the organized layer of the sponge was made up of pie eel *On the Spongiæ Ciliate as Infusoria Flagellata; or, Observations on the Structure, Ani- mality, and Relationship of Leucosolenia go granes Bowerbank. With two plates, and more than seventy-eight figures. By Professor H. James Clark, A. B., B.S. Memoirs of Boston Society of Natural History, Sad 20, 1866. 102 REVIEWS. ciliated cells, which were supposed to be allied to Amoeba, an anim Leucosolenia botryoides Bowerb. is an aggregation of new furms of Mor closely allied to Monas termo Ehren. The existence of a mouth at base of the flagellum, a lash-like organ present in many infusoria, is monstrated in all these forms, and all except Monas are described as sessing a hyaline calyx, or cup, surrounding the region of the mouth, an inverted funnel. The single monads which compose the ciliated 1 lining the internal channels of Leucosolenia, a common marine spo have a similar calyx, are monoflagellate (that is, provided with a si lash-like appendage), and probably have a mouth at the base of the lum, since they took in their food in the same manner as the Monas te The connection between Monas and its allied forms, with the higher} tozoa, or infusoria, such as Euglena, Dysteria, and Pleuronema, is by Anthophysa Mulleri which has two flagella, like the higher forms tioned, but like Monas has no calyx, and grows in umbellate colonies one sees in the great advance in the study of the Protozoa made by s en that, after all, Ehrenberg’s belief that these minute f very highly complicated organization, is, like most opiniom vedios a kernel of truth.— A. H. THE PROGRESS or ZOOLOGY IN 1866.*— Another volume of this in ble year-book, which is simply indispensable to the working natu or just bee published. We hope it will meet with much encourage rican zodlogists. In the an of oe chief a The scientific part of the zoölogical literature of 1864, to which forms a guide, amounts to more than 25 ,000 pages; that for 1865 am to not less than 35,000 pages; and that for 1866 to about 30, In the literature for 1865, it is estimated that about 7,000 animals are scribed as new to science K In running through the 649 pages of the last volume we glean the lowing items of interest. — Professor Lilljeborg states in a on the Rodents that about 2,300 species of Mammalia are known, ! about 700 Rodents, 500 © Bats), 250 Fere (including I E * The Record Zoological Literature, Edited A.C. L.G. Gunther, M. D., 18840 eer depi seported od bp D G vol. 3, pp. 649. The Mamm alia, Bep es are reported on by Dr. Birds by zoa), by E. Percival Wright; and the Mollusca by E. von Martens. ‘The P" volume ula ts abode Oda ix Gok Ws BAADE NAAA oti Chaucer car N REVIEWS. 103 ivora), 200 Quadrumana (Monkies), and about as many Artiodactyla.* — A. Müller proves that the male fox lives in polygamy, and does not assist in rearing his offspring. — A young Hippopotamus has been successfully reared in the Zodlogical Gardens in Amsterdam. — Mr. G. O. Sars refers to the contradictory statements of naturalists with regard to the ejection of water from the blow-holes of whales. He ana reo if the head with the blow-hole is geej above the surface of the water, nothing but air is expelled; but if, at the moment of expiration, the mane is still below the thology, the most important fact elicited during the year is the discovery of the bones of the Dodo by Mr. Clark, chronicled on p. 614, vol. 1, of the NATURALIST. — In a work on the fossil birds of France, A. Milne-Edwards reports that all the fossil birds of the tertiary epoch can be included in S of which, a ss large Grus, is extinct, though as regards France, two species, Lago albus, the White Ptarmigan, and Nyctea nivea, the Snowy owl, both APTE H of the arctic jag no longer exist there, being relics of the Glacial aa e t Auk is supposed to have oc- curred of late years on the rwegi coast, and it is supposed to have bred on Lundy Island i of piedi in 1838 or 1839. — commission of Dutch naturalists have reported on the Ship-worm, c ing i acks. i o olid wood by the mechanical rasping action of the minute denticulations covering a part of the surface of its valves, se movements having “a seen by M. Kater on a living animal. It has an enemy in a worm, Lyco fucata Haan, which feeds upon it. As La, means of protection aS commission report : — t is of no use to coat the surface of the wood with any substance sup- posed to be sind to the Teredo, as this coating TR be damaged sooner or. lat - The wallet on of the wood with soluble inorganic salts, does not prevent ‘ha animal from invading the woo: 3. The hardness of the wood itself does not offer any protection, the wood of the “ gaiac” and the ‘‘ mamberklak” being invaded 4. The only means offering a high probability % protection against the ani the impregnation of the w with creosote. — M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards says of Lysianassa (Eurytenes) Te that he has ompared a specimen from Spitzbergen with one in the Paris Museum, “taken from a fish’s stomach near the Straits of Magellan. These two individuals seem to resemble each other very closely (beaucoup), and I Pe fod pee Tt * Profess: 5. eee aa + P + Dowd, 7. E or a ee {rtiodactyla (including most of the ruminants), which con- Sist of those with an even number of toes. 104 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. have only seen a difference between them of size.” —The occurrence ofa venomous black spider is noticed at Berdiansk, amongst the wheat at ha vest time. — Guyon writes on the parasitic Flea, or kapap i Pulex @ Rhyn cuoprion) penetrans, which lives under the skin of man and pigs. tural enemies is the Cockroach (Blatta parior l oran (Chelifer cancroides) is destructive to the common Flea.—D gives an account of some experiments conducted for the purpose termining the possibility of spontaneous generation (heterogeny)- opinion, that, in the actual state of science, heterogeny is a chimera. NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. BOTANY. Can Li IFIED BY CHEMICAL TrEsTs?— Some experiments illustrating the differences in the chemical conti Lichens have lately been published (Regensburg Flora, 1 large genus Cladonia, by Mr. Leighton (Annals and Magazine of Natt ES pi 1866), and by a general consideration of the described phen! as recognizable in Spitzbergen = ae by Dr. Theodore Fries of Kanta in Acta Holmiæ, 1867 , from these expavinidute that Hypochlorite (Chle me tarnishes “a sort of immediate ahatyein* of the colorable ™ a r so N pies from those which do. The same holds good in Dirin canora tartarea (Cudbear of dyers) as compared with closely all cies, and in Umbilicaria and Parmelia, it being necessary in the latt the red fruit of species of Cladonia and of Biatora, in Hete Domingense, etc., the contact of the salt immediately ines 8 Haws species otherwise refetable to the groups nam ed which do not change (as Theloschistes candelarius) are thus elegantly, aud NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 105 most conveniently, separable. So again, in many other Lichens (sup- posed now to contain usneic acid) as Parmelia and Lecanora, Cladonia, etc., the reaction, if it occur, is yellow, or greenish-yellow, and serves to least, on no other than the kind of evidence above given, to be ‘‘species,” that botanists are concerned I have gone through a large part of my North American and exotic Lichens in the light afforded by these experiments, and found the facts, through Cladonia, wherein forms, agreeing in almost every other respect, are seen to differ, and in the same way, in their apas with potash ; and his list of such forms might yet be extended. C. delicata, of the first series below, is complemented, it appears (Leighton’s Shaaban p- 6) by a C. subdelicata ; and C. athelia bears, a little doubt, a similar relation to O. Santensis. Nor does there appear to be reason for estimating the value of the terms of these parallel ER as, for example, Not tinged Tinged yellow by Potash. Cladonia gracilis, . . . . “Oladonia ecmocyna,” Cladonia degeneranis, . . . “Cladonia lepidota,” “Oladonia subdelicata,” . . Oladonia delicata, “Cladonia bacillaris,” . . . Cladonia macilenta, and so on, any higher or otherwise than in C. furcata; wherein we are told (Leighton’s Cladoniæ, p. 9) Dr. Nylander does not consider the chem- ic: i h spores) should not az as properly determinable by these reagents nothing else, as spec The observations es ae are, however, plainly incomplete; and derive from this perhaps not a little of their interest. Parmelia perlata is thus said to differ specifically from its var. olivetorum Ach., by failing to show any red tinge with Chloride of Lime; the difference already recognized being regarded as sufficiently corroborated by the new one. But all speci- mens of P. olivetorum are not so distinguishable, as compare the excellent ones in Welwitsch’s Portuguese collection, No.75, and Massalongo’s Ital- ian, No.325; and the assumed organic diversity thus failing. there is left only the (in itself uncertain) merely chemical one. It is much the same with . levigata and its variety revoluta Nyl. (Synopsis, p- ng the last being now taken, and on the same evidence, to be distinct in species from the first. We have here a better ma mee difference in botanical character, AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 106 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. one which commended itself as sufficient to Floerke, and, at one time, to Borrer; and there seems to be no doubt that this origin P. revoluta — e shows no reaction; while, on aa ue » an a ‘Muro pean condi (Herbarium Krempelh.) is not wanting, soc far less with revo than with levigata, the evident reaction in which favors the inference that the latter varies possibly in its TRAS relations as much as the former; and that the new criterion is after of no service. In al tinged red by the same salt, as stated by Nylander; but only two or three | of the much more abundant North A American ones 3 Sho w any trace of the stanced s the var. chen ta Nyl. (Lindig’s Herbarium of New Granada), of which No. 110 of the second collection exhibits the coloration, while yet the contrary the c ; American specimens, as well “hes Arctic America as es ‘Ton in —but some (it is worthy of note) eufictenty x normal. P. Borreri W longs, it is further said, to the number of species which exhibit the reaction; but none is observable in several fnan North Am specimens in my herbarium, and the same is true of the New G P. Borreri Nyl. (Lindig’s Herbarium, No. 735). The group represe! by P. physodes is, on the other hand, set down as not affected by the! in the way named. P. Japonica, of the erent hir belongs none less to the group, and exhibits a free colora So Dirina is reckon" genera aying “a very distinct ratier reaction;” yet Californian species (D. Californica) fails to d other cases; but in what appears rather a corticoline form of P. cons from Louisiana (var. leucochlora Nyl.), the change is to bright Y® not without orange, contrasting with the entire want of coloration ! erpe every and perhaps therefore not unworthy of note in the P! iscuss These results, given with due respect to the experienced authors observations have been considered, sufficiently indicate that the * NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 107 inclines to emphasize the doubts with which Dr. Fries has received the supposed new criteria of distinction. It remains none the less likely, i l the sometimes afford clews to affinity where there is little to direct; and thus deserve a place beside the better-known solution of iodine, on our work- ing tables. —E. TucKERMAN, Amherst. THE SUN-DEW A FLY-TRAP.— I wish to call the attention of botanists to avery humble little plant, the Drosera arora pnt or common sun- dew, which not only catches flies, but eats them. I was looking early in the spring in a swamp for chrysalids, when I noticed the tiny leaves of the sun-dew, which has beautiful blood-red glandular hairs, each tipped two plants and kept them for several weeks by laying the bit of moss on which they grew in a plate supplied every day with water. During this time I fed them with midges, ants, and beefsteak. The tiny drop of dew is glutinous, and any small insect touching them is lost. Every effort to escape but hurries its doom, and in a moment wings and legs are held fast to the tiny bristles ow begins ey carious part of the affair. All the hairs begin to a leaf. In twelve hours nearly every hair touched it. They gathered Over it in knots and remained so for a day and a half, when they slowly returned to their natural position, leaving the beef a white sodden ato resting on the points of the hairs. I tried it with a bit of paper, but it refused to move for that; then a tiny fly was touched to one of the treach- erous dew-drops, smothered, and in a few hours all the ferocious little Scarlet hairs had their beaded points upon his body. When the blossom bud appeared, the glands no longer secreted the dew, and the leaves lost their brilliant color. — L. A. MILLINGTON. Two Crops or Roses. — Another correspondent has mentioned a mon- Strosity in roses. I have a Provence rose which for three years in suc- cession has borne numbers of flowers after its usual time of blooming. The late roses ead grow directly out of the old one until the third is produced. Some of them are perfect with the exception of the calyx, which is sdhaveiciea while others are a confused cluster of pink leaves, at the end of a stout stem. — L. A. M. A Waite WILD COLUMBINE. — One of your correspondents has spoken of finding Columbines that were nearly white. I believe they are not uncommon, as I have frequently found not only Columbines but Lobelia cardinalis of a delicate white or cream color. — L. A 108 7 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. ZOOLOGY. ARE BEES INJURIOUS TO FRUIT? — Dr. H. A. Hagen, late of König Prussia, who is an eminent entomologist, and who has paid special tion to the literature of Bees and aina; thus writes us reg this question :— “I have never known, and find nothing in the literature hand to prove that Bees are obnoxious to fruits and to fields. Bees never use the fields of red clover; the corolla is too long for their p cis. t they are very frequently seen in the fields of white clover, 4 have heard that these fields are obnoxious to bees, if shortly before ı APIPHOBIA.—The people of Wenham have voted, by a two-thirds: jority, that no bees shall be kept in the town—the vote being direc against an extensive bee-keeper whose stock has been troubles¢ Some say a Pare of the town is of ‘doubtful constitutional Boston Jow tity aaa of Wenham have judged that bertoning an atij are incompatible, and that bees are a nuisance!! We also no that the bee-keeper ‘whose stock has been Sodi advertise the Salem Gazette, his farm for sale, consisting of ‘“ three-quarters 0! ý choice standard fruit.” (Memorandum. —The bee-keeper himself m the above quotations, to have found both fruit-raising and bee- ing a source of profit! ! des, about which there is always a sort of tragic interest, be adjudged only as “common nuisances,” to be abated and & guished by the ballots of f Wenham’s “free and mee bie This disease, Apiphobia, as we may call it, has afflicted m m among the unfortunate inhabitants of Wenham, Massachusetts, It would be immodest in us to s suggést as a preventive against this " *We learn that the Selectmen of Wenham have ordered the bee-keeper to abate t Maia” and take his bees out of town. Can it be possible! and this in enlightened M: * NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 109 midable disease, the daily reading of the NATURALIST, but we can heartily recommend the perusal of the American Bee Journal, which is devoted to the habits and natural history of the Honey Bee A little knowledge of Natural History is resily: the only antidote yet discovered against this fell disease. We quote from the American Bee Journal for March, the Editor’s remarks on the subject of kieres AND FRUIT BLossoms. =A silly prejudice against bees is entertained by some fruit- d, both in quality A more nailed notion, or one deriving le less support TE observation and science, can scarcely be pon mocived. Yet it regu- larly ti p the wiseac: Repea sed ee of the resuscitation of this vikate are ait in the history of bee- —* in Germany, espec tally in t 2e per riod betw tween 1530 and 1800, On some of these occa- as sọ ap F d trati S, as to constrain the almost total PREE z Alot ty + Tr +) ta fé#hit cam of b y e the substitution of cider and beer for the ancient mead or metheglin, as the popular erage; and amid ach opposition and disco ouragement, bee-culture rapidly sunk to be of as In 1774, Count Anthony of Torrings-Seefield, in Bavaria, ature of the agrees 4 of Bci- ence at è Munich, striving to re-introduce be e-culta re on his patrimoni und in this o ove ae HoGa] to show that pees, far from being injurious, were directly beneficiai in the fru on of blossoms — causing the fruit to set, by conveying the fertilizing pollen ig tree to tree and roved moreov: offici: ily r ury ear when bees were kept by every tenant on the estate, fruit was staid Siia then, when pied seven kept bees, and none of these had more than three colonies, fruit w arcer than ever among his t ten. e Apiarian General Convention, held at Stuttgard, in Wirtemburg, in September, 1858, the subj being under discussion, the celebrated pomologist, Profes- re Lucas, goo of the directors of the Hohenbeim Institute, alluding to she pr EPPES went on however, ere was A TE of ' the horticulturist and the vee-keeper combine hoard run parallel. AR adicious pruning of d yield honey more plen- tifully, ee urge i attention to this on those particularly who at are nee fruit-growers bee-keepers, testo me that his trees yield decidedly aiem crops since he has established an apiary in his arenai; end the annual product is now more certain and regular than before, though his trees had always received due atten- ” or our fruit-tr Some years ago a w lished h t iderable cost, and stocked it with a a great aa of choice native and exotic fruit-trees— expecting in due time to have remunerating „n Time passed, and annually there was a superabundance of blossoms, with only very littl e fruit. Vari plans devised and adoptet i to bring the tion, and that by means of bees the needed work “eould be effected. A hive of busy honey- gatherers was introduced next season; the remedy was effectual—there was no longer any difficulty in producing crops there. The bees distributed the pollen, and the setting of the fruit followed naturally. THE MOTTLED Owx.—I think Mr. Samuels has misunderstood my re- marks on the nests of owls. What I intended to state was that the Mot- tled Owl never built a nest to my personal knowledge, and I did not state that the Mottled Owl occupied the ‘abandoned nest of a crow or hawk,” but I did state that other species of owls (of course meaning our local Species), when they did occupy a nest at all, inhabited the abandoned a crow or hawk, which they had partially repaired. — AUGUSTUS FOWLER. 110 ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR. AN ALBINo Hummrne-Brrp. — During the last summer a white Hum ming-bird visited many times a stand of plants on my piazza. I had eral eee of observing it closely. It seemed a trifle larger than the Ruby-throa The n neck and head were of a glossy gold-color. l large, black, no brilliant. After dipping its bill into all the tuschiag AE did what I have never seen other Humming-birds do, alighted on a dwar | apple-tree within a wh feet of me, and ate the apnhides, or plant-lice, just as the sparrows and golden-wrens do. After a hearty meal of — it ua its feathers, spread its wings one by one, and thrust out ata long tongue. — L. A. MILLINGTON. ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR. —eo —— g7 In April the injurious insects in the Northern States have scarcely gun their work of destruction, as the buds do not unfold before the f Fig.1. of May. We give an account, however, of some of the bel ficial insects which are now to be found in grass-lands mab The $ aner To know his true insect friends me mes insec troduce to our readers a large f of 0 ro ea from Carabus, the name with the principal forms. They are dark-colored, brown black, with metallic hues, and are seen in spring, and t through out the summer, running in grass, or lurking under stones and sticks damp places, whence they sally forth to hunt by night, when many table-eating i s are most active a larve are found in much in same situations as the mature t ey are elongate, oblong, and rather broad, the terminal ring of | CORRESPONDENCE. 111 body being armed with two horny hooks, and having a single fleshy leg beneath, and are usually black in color. The larva of Calosoma (C. cali- dum, Fig. 1; Fig. 2, the beetle of C. calidum Fab Fig. 6. and Fig. 3, C. scrutator Fabr.) ascends ue | io feed on caterpillars, such as Fig. 8. saw it fiercely attack a June- a sides of its clumsy and helpless victim with tiger-like ferocity. Carabus (Fig. 4, C. serratus Say; Fig. 5, pupa of Carabus au- ronitens of pode after Westwood) is a closely allied form, with very Similar hab A much tik form is the curious Bombardier beetle, Brachinus (Fig. Fig.10. 6, B. fumans Linn.), with its narrow head and heart-shaped ZAN rothorax. It is remarkable for discharging with quite an ¥% explosion from the end of its body a pungent fluid, prob- ably as a protection against its enemies. Fig. 9. An allied genus is Casnonia (Fig. T, C. Penn- sylvanica Dejean) which has a long neck and Say, represent two common forms. he former is black, while the latter is a pretty insect, apes pone purplish red wing- covers, and bla Fig. 10, vane’ fias three lines, represents a singular | larva found by Mr. J. H. Emerton under a stone early in sprin ei Dr. Leconte, to whom we sent a figure, supposes that it may possib y be a larva of Harpalus, or iaae CT It is evidently a saith fee bid. The under side is re In our monthly calendar for 1868, we shall not rile: nore facts stated in the calendar given in Vol. I. of the NaTURALIST. + CORRESPONDENCE. E. L. pa New York.—There is no manual of American En Entomology * giving a general account of insects and the classification of ‘the North ulate ad: col aga a eee ee *The writer has ready for the press, A amcar erence e sects, which will be published during the year. It is designed to be a general introduction to 112 BOOKS RECEIVED. American species. The following will be found maparo in add tion to those enumerated in Vol. I, p. 106 and 160 of t URALIST works are lists of all works relating to American insects, to which would refer the reader. r. H. Loew, in various European journals, has described many of Diptera. The British Museum Catalogue of Insects, over fifty volumes U L. A. M., Glenn Falls, N. Y.— The Sugar Mite (Acarus sachar found in brown sugar. It is much like the Domestic Mite (Acarus do ticus De Geer), which is found in collections of insects and stuffed bi where it is quite destructive. Acarus farine is found in flour and food, und They are best destroyed by sprinkling sulphur over yr leaves they in ng —eoo—_ BOOKS RECEIVED. FA nba! Abstract of Medica 1 December, 1867. Phil iladelphia. l Sciences. Ju By Me On , Mildew, and Mould. An poten Fa to the Study of Microsc, By £ Eras Bee at London, 1865. R. Hardwicke. With n trations. of Botanic Terms. By M. C. Cooke. London. R. Hardwicke. With ‘or Everybod By M. 0. ani, ney a — oap., S a a OAS all the British Ferns. By 7 pa Plain nd Easy Account of Britis Fungi, with Descriptions of the Esculent ay isime piaia l atenem AEA the the Principles AA Pccings Eee cae =e ‘and é d imo. Hondon, 1862, EE Pagan eae: eptiles: A Plain and Easy PEREN of the Lizards, Snakes, Newts, Toads, Ponder aes indigenous to Great Britain. By M. C.Cooke. With illustrations. H n, . ; rdwicke’s gn dd 1867. London, 1868. Royal 8vo. R. Hardwicke January he Field. February art E 5 ©, February 1. London. ork. ournal. March. Washington. study of Entomol arranged for the use of Schools. rists. It Colleges, and Agricultu consist of sigue of four hundred pages, long primer ty : undred cuts. will contain sho Ptions and figures of nearly all our most destrnetive and bene ‘te with the no: oxious is designed to be a popular book, written In plain language, and fr ne wa possibte fom t j ities, and furnished wi pit pS We shall to the beginner BY er wid oa a ee e ae S ee De Oe L ELS AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. II.—MAY, 1868.— No, 3. ecce TORITO THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. BY S8. H. SCUDDER. ALTHOUGH every one is familiar with the notes of birds, few can distinguish the differ- ent chirpings of insects, or are eyen aware that every kind of Grasshopper has its distinc- tive note. The songs of insects are neither so varied nor complicated as those of birds, but their study presents peculiar difficulties. Sounds become inaudible to many persons when they are derived from vibrations more rapid than 25,000 per second, and when the number reaches 38,000, the limit of human 2 perceptibility is attained: thus, the shrill- >. ness of a note may prove a hinderance to its study. This is illustrated by Tyndall in his recent book on Sound. He writes: “Crossing the Wen- gern Alp with a friend, the grass on each side of the path swarmed with insects, which, to me, rent the air with their shrill chirruping. My friend heard nothing of this, the in- sect world lying beyond his limit of audition.” Another and universal obstacle lies in the delicacy or feebleness of the notes of some species ; to distinguish them aeaea a AEA EN Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, rnd 5 print nt OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of the District agit of the District of 15 ATURALIST, VOL. IL. 18) 114 THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. clearly, one must bring his ear to within a few feet, or even inches of the insect during its stridulation, —a process which — requires great caution lest the shyness of the little violinist — should overcome his egotistic love of song. The observer — must walk quietly toward the sound until it ceases, and wait l motionless for its renewal ; the direction of the chirping can ; then easily be determined, although its distance is deceptive. — After drawing an imaginary line towards the spot from whence the sound proceeds, cautious steps must be taken — around the are of a wide circle until another line is fixed at right angles to the first, and the location of the songster ap- 3 proximately determined. Then walking quickly but quietly to within five or six feet of the insect, the observer will fall _ upon his hands and knees, and produce a quill edge and file, which, on being rubbed together, imitate, with great exact- ness, the desired note. He will commence his mock strid- ulation after a short delay; at first the sounds must be l subdued and separated by considerable intervals, then loud, — and repeated in quick succession ; usually a response i heard before a minute has elapsed, and sometimes it comes _ at once. When the insect has forgotten his fears and begins to stridulate violently, the observer may cease operations — and carefully approach him. In this way one can place | himself within a few inches of any species living in the | grass. : surface of the wing-covers. The insects which employ t fourth method stridulate during flight, —the others while at rest. To the first group belong the Crickets ; to the second THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. . 115 the Green or Long-horned Grasshoppers; to the third and fourth, certain kinds of Short-horned or Jumping Grasshop- pers. The sounds produced by the different groups vary in pitch, those of the crickets being shrillest and the others following in the order just given. With but few exceptions the males alone sing. ‘The notes of the Cricket—called by the French “cri cri” on account of its song—may be heard near Boston* from the middle of June until November; further north they do not appear until much later in the season. Their note is errr, and the rapidity with which it is uttered varies even in the same strain; sometimes it is as slow as two notes a second, at others it is twice as rapid. The note is sharp and shrill, and appears to be pitched at E natural, two octaves above middle C. Sometimes two choirs of these insects may be heard at once, the individuals of each choir chirping simul- taneously, but one choir more rapidly than the other ; most of the time this produces a sort of discord, but, as they occasionally harmonize, one hears cycles of accordance and discordance, often of remarkable uniformity and duration. The Spotted-cricket (Nemobius vittatus) appears simulta- neously with the Black-cricket ( Gryllus niger). The chirping of the two insects is very similar, but that of the former may be better expressed by r-r-r-u, pronounced as though it were a French word. The note is trilled forcibly, and lasts a vari- able length of time. One of these insects was once observed while singing to its mate. At first the song was mild and frequently broken ; afterwards it grew impetuous, forcible, and more prolonged ; then it decreased in volume and extent until it became quite soft and feeble. At this point the male began to approach the female, uttering a series of twittering chirps; the female ran away, and the male, after a short chase, returned to his old haunt, singing with the same vigor but with frequent pauses; at last, finding all persua- sion unavailing he brought his serenade to a close. * All my illustrations are drawn from New England insects. 116 _ THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. In September and October, the White Climbing- cricket ) ( Ecanthus niveus, Fig. 1, left wing-cover of male, Fig la; = Figi. gla. the same of female* ) is found on the leaves of low trees and bushes. It makes _ a uniform note, exceedingly shrill bat , attenuated. : The peculiar development of the wing in stridulating Orthoptera is nowhere seen to better advantage than in this insect In the female, the veins of the central field run nearly paral lel to the border ; in the male, they cross the wing in various | directions, and either converge toward the point of stridu- lation on the inner border at the wing, where the inner and central fields meet, or act as supports to the converging veins. All these insects belong to the first class. There are many species in the second group (the green or long-horned grass- hoppers), but a few examples will suffice. “These insects, like the crickets, sing both by day and night, but, unlike the latter, their day-song differs from that of the night. On a summers day, it is curious to observe these little cret tures suddenly changing from the day to the night-song gat the mere passing of a cloud, and returning to the ol when the sky is clear. By imitating the two songs in @ daytime, the grasshoppers can be ahde to respond to cite at will; at night, they have but one note. The previous illustrations showed that the stridulatl organ of crickets occupied the middle field of the wing} | the green grasshoppers, on the contrary, it will be found the inner field ; here, too, the relative size of the inner is nearly the same in both sexes, but the stout, curved of the male is altogether wanting in the voiceless female. One of them, the Phaneroptera curvicauda (Fig. 2,™ *1In all thei] $ tha dattad li Pen dgw aor Ws the wing; a represents the “ file;” b sae points at the li line of npada (or outer) and central felds; c, at that point between the central and pe mor Hel THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 117 Fig. 2 a, female), prefers to sing in the night. His day- song is bzrwi, and lasts one-third of a second; the night- song consists of a repetition—ordinarily eight times—of a note which sounds like tehw. This is repeated at the rate of five in three-quarters of a Fig.2a. second, making each note one- half as long as that of the day. The song of the common Meadow-grasshopper ( Orcheli- mum vulgare) is more compli- cated. Commencing with és, it changes almost instantly into a | trill of zr: at first there is a | crescendo movement which | reaches its volume in half a sec- ond; the trill is then sustained for a period varying from one to twenty seconds, and closes suddenly with p. This strain is followed by a series of stac- cato notes, sounding like jip; they are one-eighth of a second in length, and are produced at one-half second intervals. The staccato notes and the trill alternate ad libitum. The night-song differs from that of the day simply in its slower movement ; the pitch of both is at B flat, two octaves above middle C. A conical-headed grasshopper ( Conocephalus robustus) , found near the seashore in the southern part of New England, makes the salt marshes resound with its incessant, shrill din. The resemblance of its song to that of the harvest-fly is quite striking; at a distance, the note seems to be perfectly uni- form; close at hand, one can hear it rising and falling rhyth- mically, two and a half times a second, accompanied by a loud droning noise. 3 ; There are numerous kinds of jumping grasshoppers which stridulate in the daytime only. ‘They do this by the aid of b b 118 THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. the hind legs, rubbing their thighs against their wing-covers; l every movement of the fiddle-bow produces a short note, and — the uniformity with which each species plays its own song — is quite remarkable. One kind (Stenobothrus curtipennis) — produces about six notes per second, and continues them — from one and a half to two and a half seconds; another a (S. melanoplewus) makes from nine to- twelve notes in — about three seconds. In both cases the notes follow each — other uniformly, and are slower in the shade than in the 4 un. : The stridulating apparatus of the jumping grasshoppers is _ of a very different character from that of the green grasshop; — Fig.3a. pers. In Arcyptera lineata (Fig. 3, pig's, i left wing of male; Fig. 3a, left wing of female), for example, it is situated in the central field of the wing, which is of about the same size in | both sexes; some of the veins in the centre of the wing (a, enlarged in f _ Fig. 36) have a rasp-like surface | | upon which the hind thighs are | scraped up and down, producing mo- notonous, nearly uniform notes. The grasshoppers which stridulate during, flight, by the contact of the wings and wing- covers, belong mostly to the genus @dipoda; in many of them the wings are variegated with brilliant colors. 1 sound which they make seems to be under the control of EAN Aa Toa j asa <=. TORN = SSNS Ss —— norisa a ar BP a i f —_——— of the latter is more sustained, they are capable of chang ing their course, and at each turn emit a crackling sound short duration. THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 119 a aid Aad ALAA Note of Orchelimum vulgare. 120 THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. errri errri errri Note of Gryllus neglectus. ru ru ru ru ru ru ru ru ru ruru me m Ta ru ru ru ru ru ru TRPE TR Te ru eee ae . Note of Nemobius vittatus. bzrwi ee Fer Note of Phaneroptera curvicauda by day. tchw tchw tchw tchw tchw tehw tebw ui. Panum D co P S et tt nea a ia a a Note of Phaneroptera curvicauda by night. Y v FE TACT Note of eet ee) in the sun. erarerat ye IRA ara rises grerepgpereeae it Note of Stenobothrus curtipennis. EE Note of Arcyptera lineata, BEARS AND BEAR-HUNTING. BY CHARLES WRIGHT. “Nores of a Hunter,” by Henry Clapp, call to mind some personal experience about bears and bear-hunting in Texas. I was much in the company of Mr. Benjamin Burke, a very observing, intelligent, and truthful man. He imparted to me many items of information respecting the habits of the bear. Some of these habits I had the opportunity of observ- ing myself, and I have full confidence in the truth of his statements relative to the others. I had read in my youth, in some great encyclopedia, that the bear goes to his winter’s sleep very fat, and awakes from it, in the spring, very lean. I was surprised then to learn, that, so far as can be judged by appearances, he loses none of his fat during hibernation. Of course, in his wild state we cannot weigh him before going to sleep and after he wakes. The hunter says he goes to his winter-quarters “full fat,” and comes out “full fat.” Z know that he is fat when he begins to travel in the spring; but he becomes lean rapidly, notwithstanding he may find plenty to eat. At this period, he is din to hogs; indeed, all the summer, till the return of mast (acorns, grapes, and other autumn fruits) offers him better food. Mr. Burke had a very large, gentle boar (he was raised as a pet) which was caught by a bear; but he broke away, and came to the house with a gaping wound just over the middle of his back. A gang of hogs will rally, in self-defence, against a wolf, a panther, or any other animal of this country that I know of, except a ar. If you want to scatter a gang, throw among them a bit of fresh bear-skin. Apropos of this a story is ‘told, for the truth of which I do not vouch, though I think it not im- probable, that a man’s hogs being in the habit of breaking into his neighbor’s field, i latter caught one, sewed it up in the skin of a bear newly killed, and bicned it loose among AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 16 121 122 BEARS AND BEAR-HUNTING. its fellows. These ran for dear life, and the bear-hog lowed from social instinct till both fell, if not dead, at lea quite exhausted. I was not aware that a bear can climb a tree so smalls that mentioned by Mr. Clapp. The hunter knows wh the animal is in the hollow of the tree above by then of the claws. In ascending, he leaves only the puncture the claws. In descending, he makes long scratches. climb in order to “lap,” as the hunter says, described byd Clapp as drawing in branches to get the fruit. I feel inc to doubt whether they break off the branches Sor the pu of throwing them down and then descending to eat the fru looks too much like human reasoning. If the branch b he may not be able to hold it; and when he goes down, may eat the fruit. This would be all natural enough. the South, acorns form the principal mast. They are of persimmons too, and grapes. When mast is not pi they lap black-gum_ berries (Nyssa multiflora?), and impart to the flesh, not a bitter taste, as would natural Supposed, but the peculiar savor of fish ; so that, for & son of delicate taste, only severe hunger will force him eat the meat of a bear that has lapped black-gum. n] The female commonly climbs a tree to find a hollow “i her winter-quarters, where she has her cubs. I was pres® at the taking of one from such a hollow. It was neces to climb a neighboring tree ; then a piece of dry rotten W% set on fire, loosely attached to a pole and thrust into ® nest, soon forced her to turn out, Old, large bears do like to climb, and generally hibernate in a thick bunt cane or bushes, or among some fallen tree-tops, OF hollow log, making a bed of leaves, grass, brush, oF ° stuff. During winter, i 5 as nothing, or only a little mucus in the stomach and M tines; and the plug in the vent, as mentioned by Mr. © BEARS AND BEAR-HUNTING. 123 This results, probably, from the hardening of the last fecal matter, mostly mucus. which comes from the intestines. But the idea that it is composed of gum,—an idea that I never heard of in Texas,—entertained by some, reminds me of another custom of bears, probably connected with the sexual heat. In some localities, particularly on a high bluff near a ‘stream, a pine tree is occasionally seen, from which the bark, at a certain height, is plainly torn off by the teeth of some animal, It is said to be done by the bear in this manner: he rises on his hind feet. with his back to the tree, and, turning his head to one side and to the other, rips off the bark with his tusks. The size of the animal is known, ap- proximately, by the height of the marks he leaves. The same tree is visited year after year by bears of various sizes, —nhone very small, however. I would say, trusting to memory, that the average height may be about four feet. I have seen several such trees. I think Mr. Burke had never witnessed this performance, but received his information from Indians. I never saw any other than a pine thus marked. Bears are fond of honey, and will rob bee-hives, if within reach. They also dig up “yellow-jackets,” wasp’s-nests, for the larve. The account of this is amusing. The animal digs rapidly, and when the insects sting him too fiercely he quits for a moment, rolls over and over on the ground, snarling the while, and returns again to the attack, perhaps to go through the same movements several times before he bears off the prize. Itis exciting sport hunting bears with dogs. These come to be almost as fond of it as- the hunter himself. Most of them, in the beginning, fear to attack, and some never get the better of the dread he inspires. A fierce one is apt to Spring at the ear, to his sorrow. But the dog that has eour- age and prudence combined bites him behind, which be will by no manner of means tolerate, but will wheel to fight. I doubt if he ever properly strikes with his paws. He makes 124 THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS, his own instinctive effort to seize the attacking party, and to put him in the place of the lowermost dog in the fight. Then he bites, and if he gets the dog by the back, and if this be a lean thin dog, woe be to the dog. A fat one has a better chance. The bear cannot so well get his broader back into his mouth, and, the skin slipping, he generally escapes with only a flesh-wound. Dogs, at first, often refuse bear-meat, but come to prefer it before all others, as does the hunter. When hard pressed, the bear will back into a dense patch of cane or into a bunch of bushes, and, standing erect on his hinder parts, make the best fight he is capable of. This is | the time for the hunter, when his attention is absorbed by the f dogs. Occasionally one is started, which runs steadily on and escapes. Females and young commonly climb, o “tree” in hunters’ dialect. Generally, they are then easily shot; but sometimes, on the hunter’s approach, they will i drop from the tree and run on again. I once met a female and two cubs. I shot the mother fait in the breast, aiming at the white spot. The cubs treed, and I killed them; I then went in search of the old one, fully expecting to find her, close by, dead. As she ran away sie bled profusely, but the blood grew less, and finally stoppel entirely, and I never found the bear. How she could g0 quite off with such a loss of blood, was a mystery. THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS | BY SIDNEY I. SMITH. (Concluded from page 23.) . AMONG UEU: and fluvial species, topography is ma more powerful in limiting, geographical distribution, than is among marine species. ‘The separation of lands by )¥ ocean waters, without change of temperature, is sufficient | THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 125 prevent the mingling of their land faun to any extent, while they may have most of their marine species in common. Such cases are numerous; at the Galapagos, for instance, none of the truly land species are known to occur in any other region, while a large portion of the marine species are found also on the American coast. Temperature is undoubtedly the most effective cause in limiting the diffusion of land and fresh water, as well as marine animals; but its influences are much obscured by those of humidity, and by the varying character of soils, waters, and the resulting vegetation. Temperature, as a result of or combined with topography, forms a very effective force in limiting the distribution of land animals. High and continuous mountain ranges pre- sent an almost impassable barrier to the migration of most species. Thus the physical features which separate faunæ from regions east and west may be so strongly marked, that they more than counterbalance the climatic effects of lati- tude. In North America, the faunæ on the east of the Rocky Mountains are very different from those on the west, and the inclosed central table-lands are occupied by still different faunæ. The birds of Arizona resemble those of the table-land of Mexico rather than those of California or of exas. These physical features even effect a change in the migrations of the birds of this region; many of the birds of the Colorado valley, instead of migrating far to the north in summer, turn to the east and breed in the region north of Fort Whipple.* Climatic influences, almost alone, limit the distribution of mountain vegetation ; and, through the vegetation, more than directly that of mountain animals. The narrow limits within which mountain species are restricted show very plainly the effect of climatic influences. Among the butterflies of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the abundant Chiono- bas semidea Edw., is restricted to the loftiest summit, never Stes y E. Coues, Prodrome of a work on the Ornithology of Arizona Territory, moped NATURALIST, Vol. I, p. 209. 126 THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. breeding without these narrow limits, although frequently blown into the lower vallies. In a zone below these lofty. summits, but not extending to the base of the mounta Argynnis Montinus Seudd. is found, yet never at the sum mit with the Chionobas, nor about the base with the specie of the Canadian or Virginian faune.* Many other spe of insects, and many plants, are restricted in the samem ner. It cannot be that. these species are thus restricted their distribution merely by some primary, innate princi which prevents their diffusion ; for, like their marine re tives, they have not always been thus restricted. A zal 7 ba = land as it is in the ocean, for land species are not so left fossil in their ancient homes ; and, as there are no thentic records of land animals existing through the Gh epoch, we can go back no farther than its decline. Yetit worthy of remark, that the arctic land fauna of the Tertiary f period, like the marine, was probably cireumpolar ; and the gradually advancing coldof the glaciers would have drit many arctic plants and animals southward, and, living just beyond the border of the ice belt, they would have fol it back with the glacial decline. _ At the close of the Glacial epoch, the fauna and the of New England must have been very much like that of As the migra as a€rial is] evidence in the northern Species scattered along its P M * S. H. Scudder, Remarks on some Characteristics of the Insect Fauna of the W ountains, Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. VIL t Packard, Glacial Phenomena of Labrador, p. 256, THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 127 upon the mountains, or wherever the climatic or topograph- ical influences have not annihilated them. The flora of the higher mountains of New England and the Middle States is quite identical with that of higher North American latitudes. All the plants of the White Mountains are now growing upon the coast of Labrador. As might be expected, the fauna of these mountains agrees with the flora. The larger animals would not, of course, be expected to occur in so restricted an area; still, one or two northern birds are found in summer, and many species of insects—Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Orthoptera—are common to the mountains and places farther north. There are, however, some forms which appear to be peculiar to the mountain fauna, but more careful and extended investigation in the northern regions may prove many or even all of them to belong to species still existing at the north. The plants and the birds of the coast of Maine, where the cooling effect of the arctic current is still felt, are subarctic in character, and very different from. those inland. Potentilla tridentata and Alsine Gtrenlandica,* species characteristic of the flora of Labrador and the New England mountain summits, with Pupilla badia, still linger as far south as Portland. Thus upon the land, as in the ocean, there are southern outliers of northern faune which are relics of the northern march of life during the close of the Glacial period. The influence of winds in animal distribution is very slight, and seems wholly a disturbing power; yet it should not be passed over in silence, for it helps explain the wonder- fully wide diffusion of a few species. The winds may trans- port animals great distances, even over oceans, and drop them alive among the species of other faune. Several of our American binds have been carried thus to Europe so ee At Paris, teste et forty miles north of Portland, and just on the coast li cia ra the Leda Clay ep a railway cut, as kir r% mark their home of a former age. The occurrence o of Sedum Rhodiola in Bucks + nis Sa mentioned by lt ype core Forter in in e vol- ume of the N. 128 THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. often, that they are now catalogued as British species, although they are never known to breed there; and Euro £ pean species have frequently been taken upon the America coast. It is not very probable that land birds have cros: the Atlantic in this way and become established in the oppe f site country, but in the case of northern aquatic birds, itii by no means impossible that whole flocks may have crossel the ocean, and become inhabitants of both shores of he there is a still greater chance of being carried from country. to country by winds. That they have never been known ti new country, the chances of their becoming perman established are very much greater than for birds, for a sing# female with eggs might be sufficient to introduce the species | Some of the facts mentioned below in regard to the intro duction of insects through man’s agency, show how they may become established. Of the organic causes in animal distribution, the infi of animals themselves is very slight compared with that man. Still, many species, carried by the winds or by influence from their original homes into other regions, destroyed by native carnivorous species, their perm introduction prevented, and the mingling of far-sepa™ parasites from place to place. A species is seldom duced without some of its parasites, and it might Introduce them without becoming introduced itself, for sited cocoons and eggs of insects, or living insects and animals infested by parasites, might be carried great © THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 129 tances, and the parasites thus introduced attack other spe- cies. Man, with boundless aspirations and governed in all things by an influence within himself, is given a power in nature second only to his Creator; with control over physi- cal causes, he is governed by no laws of geographical dis- tribution, and, traversing the whole earth at his will, he has carried, in spite of climatic influences, species from continent to continent, and almost from pole to pole. His influence— far above all other secondary causes, and uncontrolled by the laws imposed upon mere animals—seems only a disturbing force among the naturally harmonizing laws of the diffusion of life. Many of the changes which man has wrought in the distribution of animals are so evident and so universally understood, that it is useless to refer to them here, and we will allude only to some of those which bear more directly upon our understanding of the geographical distribution of species. _ By changes in the minor physical features of regions, man has often adapted them to species of other regions. The Cliff-swallow was formerly known only from far west of the Mississippi, where there were extensive limestone cliffs for it to nest upon; but now that the buildings of man have made places for its habitation, it has spread from the Missis- sippi all over the Atlantic States.” The New Potato-beetle (Doryphora 10-lineata), which is so destructive in the West, was long ago known at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, feeding upon a wild Species of Solanum peculiar to that region. Civilization, pushing westward, at last extended its fields of cultivated plants far west of the Mississippi into this region. The po- tato (a species of Solanum) was well adapted to feed the beetle, and was of course attacked by it. The broad fields of cultivated plants were much better fitted for its increase than the scattered wild ones, and it rapidly diffused itself * A. E. Verrill, Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. IX, p. 276. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 17 130 THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. eastward. In 1864 it had crossed the Mississippi, and now it has covered half of the State of Illinois.* Three common species of butterflies in Eastern North America, — Vanessa Antiopa, Cynthia cardui, and Cynthia Atalanta,—long known to be identical with European spe cies, have been asserted to be natives of this country, and the possibility of their introduction from Europe has recently been questioned.t But, within a very few years, there has been a well-authenticated instance of the naturalization of an- European butterfly in Canada. Pieris Rape, the Cabbage butterfly of Europe, was introduced at Quebec about 1859, and, in 1863, it had become very abundant within a circle of forty miles radius about that city.t If butterflies are intr duced and spread so rapidly now, there is no reason why the other butterflies mentioned, all of which feed upon it- | troduced plants, should not have been introduced and dit fused over all the eastern part of the country long before entomologists began to study the distribution of species. n’s influence is perhaps more noticeable in restricting the range of, or wholly destroying many species of animals. Within a few centuries several of the largest birds have become extinct through his agency, the larger wild anim! l have been mostly driven from civilized countries, the rele tive abundance of the different classes of animals has been materially changed, and the natural harmony which must | have prevailed in the distribution of life has been destroyed for man cannot change the relative abundance of & ing® species without affecting indirectly myriads of animals. f man has wrought such vast changes within the si! period of our written history, what must be the sum of a his influence in past ages? Is it too much to say " influence aided in the extermination of those monsters of% | *B. D. Walsh, Practical Entom : rE ologist, October, 1865, and November, 1866. gaa ta certain Entomological Speculations of the New England school TGJ. Bowles a of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, Vol. II, „J. 8, e Occurrence ; Janadian WALT Ko. 4, August, ions of Pieris rape in Canada. C ay THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. 131 last geological epoch, the Mastodon, the Irish Elk, the Cave- bear, and all those wonderful animal forms that passed away with the appearance of man? THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. BY W. J. HAYS. In a recent number of the NATURALIST is a letter from Dr. Coues on the animals of our Western plains. Among other quadrupeds he describes the Antilocapra Americana, or Prong-horn Antelope, and says that they do not shed their horns. It is somewhat strange, that, although this animal has been known so long, so little is known of mn Provosons aaa T habits _ _ From Tenney’s Zoology. A few years since Professor Baird received a letter from Dr. Canfield, who had spent Some years among these animals, announcing the fact the antelope did actually shed its horns. As this animal has always been supposed to belong to that class of ruminants called hollow-horned, the same as the cow, sheep, and goat, Professor Baird looked upon the statement as a delusion of the writer’s, and paid no farther attention to the matter, until, in 1865, a young male antelope was taken to the Zoélogical Gardens of Lon- don; this was the first animal of the kind ever taken to Europe One morning the keeper discovered that one of the horns 132 THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. was loose, and, supposing that some injury had been done to the animal, he immediately called for Mr. Bartlett, the s f perintendent of the garden, when, upon further examination, they found that both of the horns were about to fall off. This was the first account published of this interesting fact. The account will be found in the Proceedings of the Zodlogieil f Society of London for 1865. For the last four years I have had an antelope under my own observation, and have watched carefully the process of : development of the horns. The antelope fawns are born in the spring, and when ait months old the horns first begin to develop. They contin to grow until the next Oetaber or November (that is, until A e aa, teres ee tasers Ea , haere Jan at the animal is eighteen months old), when the first ae horns are shed; by this is meant the outside shell. 4” . the cow and sheep there is a horn-core formed by a ; longation of the frontal bone, and oceupying about tw off, of the interior of the horn. When the horn drops horn-core is found covered with a thick skin, and with hair, the same as the face of the animal, with # portion of the tip having already begun to harden; this ing as a wedge, forces the horn off. | DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 133 The new horn continues to grow from the tip downwards, and generally to curve inwards; at the same time the thic skin below continues to harden, at first assuming the appear- ance of black leather. It is flexible, so that the tip may be bent in any direction; a prong sprouts from the base, and, by the middle of summer, the horns are fully developed, to be dropped and again renewed in the autumn. The horn, when shed, seems to be a mass of agglutinated hairs enclosed by a substance resembling whalebone in appearance ; some of the hairs, however, never amalgamat- ing with the horn, but retaining their natural condition, and, passing entirely through the horn, will be found protruding on the inside and outside of the horn. The animal, from which I have made the drawings, is now developing his fourth pair of horns. The second pair of horns were about three inches longer than the first, and the same difference existed between the second and third pair. EXPLANATION OF PLATE 3. Fig. 1. The animal in October, immediately after shedding the horns. Fig. 2. Appearance in August, the horns being perfect. DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? BY F. W. PUTNAM. “Ep t WELLSVILLE, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1867. ‘DITORS AMERICAN NATURALIST Sirs,— A short time since I was in Codir, Pa., in whortle- berry time, and a man who had been out berrying stated that i suddenly came across a Rattlesnake with her young, some twenty-six, * about her. * In regard to the number of snakes in a brood, very little is known. a be deat a m number for a a Rattles nake, taking ke own 0 as a guide, for of two fem. ah os one gee a and the other eight ni formed eggs in oe ar though thee were a number Small ones (not quite as large as peas) which had pro henly. been impregnated and might have become developed before the ott d, but which appeared to 134 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? She immediately. opened her mouth, and instantly the whole family of little ones went down her throat. Do you believe it? Is that the nature of the Rattlesnake? — H. M. S.” THe above question has been often asked, and we have several times received statements similar to that expressed im — the foregoing letter, which, while difficult to believe, it is 4 hard to doubt without questioning the veracity of a large l number of persons, and it seems to the writer that the principal point to prove now is, Do young snakes, after enter- ing the throat of their parent, come out again alive? In answer to this last form of the question we can Say, that frogs can live some time in the esophagus. of a snake; and if so, why cannot young snakes do the same? for appa rently snakes have as great a power as frogs to live under — circumstances that ould deprive more highly organized anh mals of life.—To my proof about the frog : A Last summer Mr. Hyatt met with a common Striped-snake which had recently enjoyed a meal, indicated by a large bunch near the centre of the body. Mr. Hyatt was led, by — the very common desire which most naturalists have of ue as bid they belonged w a second brood. In # er” oH a hapa -m geme j ts, each egom igan embryo about se — 7 in length, i in — = sty were gaa he comm sirtalis) thirty-five inches in ipik, collected on the ne of ay, I found forty-two early babu young in the ores each ah mate ah ye fro ms half inches in length, making a co ned length ae length of the parent. Ee 13th I caught a 5 ta a ea preni Ga : had nine isu each poe en was three-fourths of an inch in contained am embryo two and a half inches long. On July 31st I captured anor of pe ai which had evidently just piepe dope of her brood, as there were but four po i rst by the young. These pl tnt each one o and a quarter in length, and contained dren makore aye and a half inches. ga August 30th, I found the eggs of the comm vernalis), seven number, just under the old bark and moss am a decayed stump in a meadow. gs, which p Jread partly out of the egg, and t before I hedi rea inch ng 3 inch in Paik a and the young snakes were five and th rteen one hundredths lon ng. Several years ago a family of twenty-two young Watari ( m), each about eight inches = length, were vepe together and presen Cambridge, by Dr. Chaplin. These few notes that I have sary to T time of amd of our cabin and the number of to brood, and I c any of the readers of the NATURALIST who feel disposed collect female paie ‘aie hep Suty, August, and September, that they W very acceptable to our collectio: BE aA a g = 28 oe AA g Lies cae ET ita DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 135 experimenting on animals that come in their way, to try the temper of the snake, which he did by teazing it with a stick. This amusement, in a short time, apparently made the snake sick, and the “bunch” was observed to move towards the head. Ina few moments more a live frog* was seen trying to get out of the snakes mouth, which, after a hard trial and a good many jerks and kicks, it succeeded in doing, and jumped off highly delighted at making its escape from such close and uncomfortable quarters. This little incident proves that a frog can live a considerable time in the csophagus of a snake; and any one desirous of witnessing the power which snakes have of maintaining life under equally trying circumstances, need only attempt to drown one, or kill it by placing it in a tight jar. If, instead of making the cruel experiment, the reader will take our word for it we can as- sure him that snakes have been known to live for some time immersed in water, and “bottled up” in alcohol. Thus, with the above facts before us, what reason have we to doubt that young snakes can live in the dilatable throat of their mother long enough for her to carry them to a place of safety? and why should not young snakes have this means of protection given to them? It is really a provision no more wonderful than that with which young kangaroos, opossums, and other marsupial mammals are provided in the pouch of their mothers; or the young pipe-fishes and Sea-horses in the singular pouch or abdominal fold of their thers, into which the young go for protection or for rest. + One might easily believe, that, if the old snake should take the young into her throat in a moment of danger, she might afterwards, on being pressed by hunger, be strongly tempted to work them down a little farther and provide her- Self with a good dinner already at hand, especially as large * Rana palustris. i a. Ihave seen the young of our common Pipe-fish (Syngnathus Peckianus), p sog aquarium, go in and out of the “pouch” of the male fish. 136 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? snakes are known to feed on smaller ones ;* and that it would | be almost too much to expect that an animal, which to our 3 higher natures seems so cold in its disposition, would stop to 4 i aider the fact that it was her own children she had in her throat before forcing them into her empty stomach. But — here again are we met with facts that should set this doubt at rest; for certainly we must allow that her Snakeship is as highly endowed with motherly feeling as several species of — fishes which live in the waters of Soulhi America, and which — are known to carry their eggs in their mouths until they are hatched, and the young isa attained considerable size; and yet, though the mouths of these fishes are so full of eggs ~ young that they cannot take food without either unloading — their mouths or swallowing their eggs, yet they are not known to swallow eggs which they have taken in charge With this well knows. case of forbearance on the part of fishes, are we not justified in believing that snakes would j have an equally motherly regard for their offspring? a It has been given as a reason against the probability of : snakes taking their young into debs: throats, that the gastric d juice would Aity the life of the young ones in a & time ; but this is not the case, as we know from the instance of the frog that life is not immediately destroyed. Te gastric juice, too, would not affect any animal. until it w received within the stomach, and probably not even gr until life was destroyed by suffocation. at The belief that the young of several species of snakes enter the mouth of the parent for protection, has pre for a long time, and, in many countries. A simi lar belief very preria among sailors and sea-faring men, T¢ many species of hath which are thought to take thei young into the mouth to protect them from danger.t * On opening a large Black-snake (Coluber seers enh a full-sized a (Coluber vernalis), and a full-sized Brown-snake ( Tropidonotus occipitomaculati®i found in its stomach and adjoining part of the ld son with those porti stomach in a slightly decomposed condition ae a me sailors believe that the young sharks, which are often seen to DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 137 In a conversation with Professor Wyman some time since, that eminent physiologist stated that he did not know any reason why young snakes could not live for a time in the throat of the parent, and also called my attention to the prevalence of the belief in former times by a quotation from Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” in the first canto : XIV. “ But, full of fire and greedy hardime The yonthfull Knight could not mi ki be staide; B By which he saw the ugly monster plaine, Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide, But th’ other halfe did womans shape retai Most lothsom, filthie, foule and full of vile isak XV. “And as she lay upon the durtie ground, Her huge long taile her den all overspred n as that uncouth light upon them shone, er pi mouth they crept, and suddain all were gone. * * * * * * * * hey saw so bidei falling to the ground, Groning full deadly all with troublous feare Gathred themselves about her body round, Weening their wonted entrance to have found At her wide mo uth; but being there withstood, They flocked all about her bleeding wound, And sucked up their dying mothers bloud ; aking her death their life, and eke her hurt their good.” We have quite recently received from Mr. Cooke, the editor of “Science-Gossip,” London, several of his instruc- gg while ee eta about he parent fish, are taken into the mouth of the parent, others ink that they enter at the genital open AMER. “Seba sg 18 138 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? tive and interesting little works on popular Natural History, — and among them “Our Reptiles”* which contains such con- firmations of some of the statements given in this shom sketch, and so many well-authenticated accounts of snakes taking their young into their mouths for protection, that *) quote the following passages. i On page 50, in writing on the food of the common Eng lish Snake, which is the European representative. of the common Striped-snake of America, and closely allied to it in its habits, he gives the following quotation from Mr. Bell: “I once saw a very small one [frog], which had been swal- lowed by a large snake in my possession, leap again out of the mouth of the latter, which happened to gape, as they frequently do immediately after taking food.” And again oi the same page he writes: “During the present summer, gentleman of our acquaintance saw a lad kill a snake in the wood. It was a very large one, and the boy cut it opet along the under surface with his pocket-knife. By means a full-sized frog was liberated from the stomach oft yr snake. It was very sone and soon hopped away. may not young vipers remain as long with equal ease stomach of their parent?” On page 68, in treating of the venom of Vipers, he mer p tions the following case of a Horned-viper presented | toe F Guyon in Mista : “This reptile had been put into 4) att which had since remained hermetically closed. It had in there for six weeks, without food and without air, looked quite dead, since it could not stir in the bottle, 1 it filled entirely. And yet, on opening the bottle, aimee — ee * OUR REPTILES. A plain and easy papae: ‘of the Lizards, Snakes, New an M. C. Cooke, author ry sage and numerous wood-euts. Published by Robe - 200 pages, 11 plates, and numerous cuts. We ca can heartily recommend the works of oe Cooke to our readers, 9 i books tha ill nature, an nd should be Pp any of le for our subscribers. — Eps. DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 139 doctor found the reptile perfectly sound, and saw it kill a large fowl instantaneously with its sting” [fangs]. On page 76, Mr. Cooke comes boldly to the question in point, and under the heading of Does the Viper swallow its young? gives several pages which we quote in full. The belief has a firm hold in the minds of many, that, on the approach of danger, the young of the viper glide to their parent for protection, and that she opens her mouth, and, one by one, they pass down her throat, where they rest in security till the danger is past. To prove a negative is always a difficult task, but the effort to remove a prejudice must be even greater to be successful. a ok naturalists, men of science and repute, in common with those who make no profession of learning, . have combined in this belief, and to ‘iin’ we are indebted for many such accounts as the following: ‘‘ Walking in an orchard near Tyneham House, in Dorsetshire, I came upon an old adder basking in the sun, with her io. around her; she was lying on some grass that had been long cut, and had become smooth and bleached by exposure to the weather. Alarmed by my approach, I distinctly saw the young ones run down their mother’s throat. At that time I had never heard of the controversy respecting the fact, otherwise I should have been more anxious to have Killed the adder r, to farther prove the case.”* Nothing can well be more Positive, clear, definite, and many would think decisive, than the Pe ac yet, so sceptical are some men on this subject, that they still dare doubt whether there may not be some error in the observation. Let us advert to other witnesses, and evidence still more complete, and we do so With as earnest a desire for paer as ony witnesses themselves, and to know that the debate is closed for - H. Gurney, Esq., of Catton tian, near Norwich, well known as en, and especially for the splendid collection of Raptorial Birds n the Norwich Museum, which has been obtained chiefly through his instrumentality, in the year 1863 communicated to the Zoölogist the fol- lowing ema told to him by a person in whose accuracy he had the fullest re lance. “John Galley saw a viper at Swannington, in Norfolk, tioeaed by several young ones; the parent reptile perceiving itself observed, opened its mouth, and one of the young ones immedia’ ely crept down its throat; a second followed, but after entering for about half its eue » Wiggled out again, as though unable to accomplish an entrance. Pon this Galley killed and opened the viper, and found in the gullet, * Rev. H. Bond, South Petherton, Somerset, in Zodlogist, p- 7278. 140 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 7OURB oe which endeavoured unsuccessfully to follow in the wake ot the first.” * Bi To ‘hi s we may add another instance corroborative, and yet more co e V ‘* Now, ‘seeing is pee and I well remember having seen in yhood—some thirty years ago—an instance of the fact, the truth which is doubted Sisuies resting merely on the testimony of hgs entific country people. Now, I have no pretensions to science, WW I vouch for the truth ahaa referred to—of having, in my boyhoo — when out on a birds’ -nesting Eee tion in a southern county, wi some three or four companions—come suddenly upon a viper sunig her young brood on an open grassy sp oe in a broad hedge-row: hedge rows were common in those days. Immediately she saw us, she began to hiss, and away went the young, previously some feet from her, ‘helter skelter’ towards their mother; rushed into her mouth — expanded toa immense width for so small. a creature— and down her throat, one over the other, while you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’ The space where she was recreating was some twenty feet square, so that before she coal beat to cover, we, boylike, being armed with sticks, had beaten her t0 death. This done, one of the party with his knife opened the body, out came again the little ones, all of which we ki led. Ido not remembe the exact number, but my impression is that it was not more than six ot eight.” t Another or anes recently communicated to Science-@ the following occurren t Some years since In was shooting in a wood, and came suddenly % viper lying on a sunny bank. As soon as the viper caught sight of 16 began to hiss, and I distinctly saw several young ones, about Masi four inches long, run up to the parent and vanish down its throat; from the way in which the parent kept its mouth open, and the young glided into it, I should say they were accustomed to that sort of thing: We must not forget that some time since the following % were narrated in the Zoölogist, by the editor himself, and ieee own offspring. At night the vasculum was laid on a table, i was a ei at rest; in the ere the young ones had re-AP) the mother was as lean as at first i w * The Zoölogist, p. 8856. t Science- Gossip, p. 108. t Ibid P DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 141 “Mr. Henry Doubleday, of Epping, supplies the following information : ‘A person whose name is English, a good observer, and one, as it were trod on her.’ In both these instances,” Mr. Newman adds, “the narra- tors are of that class who do know what to observe, and how to observe it; and the facts, whatever explanation they may admit, are ne to be dismissed as the result of imagination or mistaken observation We must confess that our own incredulity has been so kipini of late by these and similar instances, that we are by no means disposed to deny, because we cannot fully comprehend, the mystery of the process. It is - itted by some physiologists, if not by all, that there ee no sound phy Bay oe reason against such an occurrence; and, until we are con- vinced by better arguments than have hitherto been ri we dre und to ec that in “our inmost hearts” there lurks a belief that the maternal viper has a knack of swallowing its young. Whether our scien- tific friends consider us renegade from the true faith or not, we will at least be true to ourselves. With this feeling of Mr. Cooke’s we fully sympathize, and we believe the whole matter can be put at rest by any per- son, who, on observing a snake in the act of swallowing its young, will think to capture and place her in a box by her- self and see if the young again issue from the mouth. Should any of our readers ever obtain this much desired proof, we trust they will at once communicate it to the Narurauisr, and, if possible, send the whole family to the Academy, that the mother may be induced, if possible, to gratify us with an exhibition of her care for her offspring. here is one other matter of interest to be decided, and that is, taking it for granted that snakes do swallow their young, is it a “habit common to all snakes, or only to certain Species? In this country this habit has been, we believe, only attributed to the several species of Rattlesnakes ( Cro- talus), and to the Water-adder ( Tropidonotus sipedon), while in m Europe it is generally attributed to the Vipers (Pelias). The interest in this question is farther increased O ONRET PE * The Zodlogist, p 142 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? by the fact, that the Rattlesnake and the Vipers are oy viviparous ; that is, their young are hatched from the eggs while still in the body of the parent, and come into the world perfectly formed. The Water-adder and the common Striped-snake are probably also ovo-viviparous, but of this we are not sure. The common snake of England, the rep resentative of our Striped-snake, is supposed to be wholly | an oviparous species. And our Striped-snake may be the _ same under natural circumstances, though one kept in a box | gave birth to a number of living young, about the last of | August; but this snake had been in confinement for a long” time, and may have retained her eggs in the oviducts much | longer than the natural period, owing to the want oft proper place in which to deposit them. All possible meas | were tried to induce this snake to take the young into her | mouth but without success, though this may be accounted ; for by the supposition that the snake was so tame that she could not be easily frightened, or, if really an oviparous spè i cies, that it was not her habit. eo We have never known that our Black-snake, Green-snakê, Little Brown-snake, and other oviparous species, have ¢ been supposed to swallow their young. Neither have | seen any account of such an occurrence in the common snake of Europe. There is little doubt but that many of the suppose instances of young snakes having been swallowed by : parent are owing solely to the fact that some species forth fully developed young; for the statement is 0% made by persons that they “know snakes sw young, for they have killed an old snake and found | young ones in her ;” but, on being asked if they were the young snakes had ever been born, it was found that g had taken that for granted, supposing that all snakes # eggs, and that hence the young found inside the mother m have been swallowed. This is mentioned to call attention, the care with which the examination of snakes foun THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 143 young ones should be made in order to be sure that the young were really in the alimentary canal and not in the oviduets. It is also of importance to ascertain if young snakes, after having been swallowed by the parent, ever enter the stomach or are confined to the space in the cesoph- agus above it. This can be discovered by cutting open the throat and following down to the stomach, which in most species is situated from about one third to one half the dis- tance between the mouth and the termination of the alimen- tary canal, and can readily be determined by its thicker walls and more numerous folds on its inside, which are very marked when the stomach is not distended with food. THE LAKES OF IO0WA,—PAST AND PRESENT. BY C. A. WHITE, M. D. Laxes of Iowa! reiterates some New England reader, and, seeing no large bodies of water represented on the map of that Commonwealth, he really thinks ponds must be meant. Well, be it so, but the writer hereof is a western man, and in the West all collections of fresh water, whether large or small, are called lakes or lakelets. Perhaps, however, he has eard the stories of the “walled lakes” of Iowa, in which the wondrous handiwork of a departed race of men is described, consisting of walls of huge stones encircling the lakes like t of an artificial fish-pond, so raised as to prevent an overflow of water upon the adjacent low ground; sloping down to the water’s edge with a pavement like a Mississippi levee ; rounded and graded with earth upon the top, forming à good road upon which the Jehus of that departed race doubtless drove their elk or buffalo chariots in pursuit of Pleasure or of their daily avocations; and the whole finished with a garniture of sage reflections upon the mutability of 144 THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. — human affairs. Such fantastic stories have been frequent in our newspapers for several years, rendering those modest little lakelets so famous that many pilgrimages have been made to their borders with the hope of finding something to aid in penetrating the mystery that shrouds the early human history of our continent. a It is such lakelets as these and their origin that will now in part engage our attention; and while showing the ground- lessness of the stories referred to, we hope to present still more interesting and wonderful facts, because in the realm of Nature truth żs stranger than fiction. : a First, let us go back to their origin, for they originated from causes so definite that we are often able to comprehend them as clearly as if we saw them in operation ; and the time of their formation in relation to other geological changes is as accurately determined as that of any other. Not only have the lakes had a definite origin, but, as we shall presently vs H IA ey či by any rivers or streams. Shallow depressions only = were filled with water from tho rains and the melting marked the surface. These were the primitive lakelet® =. z _ THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 145 existed before any definite streams were formed. Where the depressions were longitudinal, or connected in chains, they gave initial direction to the courses of the streams into which the surface-waters were gathered and carried away to the sea. These are the streams of to-day, and their cease- less flow, aided by the rains and frosts of the unnumbered years that have passed since then, have worn their own chan- nels down, not only through the incoherent drift, but often also through solid stratified rocks, the edges of which we see protruding from their valley slopes. Thus all the valleys of this region are valleys of erosion, and it is meteorological erosion alone that has given it its most prominent physical features. As one stands upon the broad level prairies of Southern Iowa, and sweeps the well-defined ocean-like horizon with his level, he finds the bubble everywhere resting upon the cross-wire except where the distant dark line of forest foli- age reveals the presence of a stream. Approaching this, the surface becomes undulating like the smooth rolling of a sea; but looking closely he will see that every depression leads into a still deeper one until the upper branches of the streams are reached, the surfaces of which are often more than one hundred and fifty feet below the prairie level from which he started ; and the surfaces of the larger streams are some- times a hundred feet deeper still. The higher prairie-surface of to-day is the same surface which was left by the retiring Waters at the close of the Glacial epoch, and the time which passed since then—that during which the valleys were formed—is called by geologists the Terrace epoch, because the oscillations of the streams from side to side of their val- leys in the process of their erosion have left frequent terraces of material which successively constituted “flats” or “bot- toms” bordering the streams, but which are now far above the reach of their highest floods. The Terrace epoch verges upon the present time, because the same streams still flow, and earthy matter is still carried by them to the sea, as rap- AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. I. 146 THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. idly perhaps as it ever was, although only occasionally sub | ficient in amount to muddy the water. Thus it will be seen how slowly the mightiest operations of Nature are performed; for this most recent of the geological changes has doubtless required a length of time so great that the human mindis incapable of comprehending it. r In Northern Iowa the prairie horizons are not so clearly defined as they are farther to the southward, and it was doubtless so at the beginning. The drift also contains mo gravel and bowlders there, from the fact that nearly all of 4 those materials originating still farther to the northward, their abundance diminished with the diminishing force of the glaciers to the southward. Numerous irregular rounded ele- vations or knobs mark the surface, between which are pit responding depressions; not produced however by erosion since the drift was deposited, as the river valleys were, bit are, like the knobs, inequalities left by the glaciers. wes Some of these depressions have become drained ; some of them are still occupied by the lakelets, and some by pe marshes. Streams are numerous in Southern Iowa, and ti : valleys deep. Consequently the country is so well drained and many of those lakelets still exist there, because noe cumulation of water beyond has sent a current across them to cut a channel for their outlet. Lake basins are sometime hollowed very deeply into the earth, showing bold exp? of stratified or unstratified rocks upon their shores. But : lakelets of which we are speaking, had their origin in shalo depressions left in the surface of the drift alone at tae of the Glacial epoch. By the action of subsequent they, in certain regions, became “walled lakes ;” for # ity of them are as worthy of that designation a8 those af" which the fanciful stories have been told. Nor aè? of that character confined to Iowa alone, but are know? in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and even in Con? THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 147 cut; yet all except two, one in Wright county, and the other in Sac county, Iowa, seem never to have’ been favored with the visits of an imaginative writer to tell fanciful stories of their associated remains of human handiwork. It seemed necessary to make the foregoing statement of facts, and’ the geological principles which they involve, be- fore attempting a description of the lakelets themselves, that such a description might thus be rendered more intelligible, and which is here given’ as the result of long-continued observation of sixteen such lakelets in Northern Iowa, in- cluding the two which have become noted as walled lakes. They usually occupy an open prairie region. Sometimes small groves are near them, but trees are often entirely wanting, especially since’ the settlers mercilessly destroy them for fuel. They are from one to five miles across, but always very shallow, because the undulations within which they rest are very gentle. None of them are more than fifteen feet deep, and the majority are so shallow that they permit a luxuriant growth of wild rice and other aquatic Plants from their bottoms over the whole, or a large part of eir areas, among which water-fow! find shelter and abun- dant food, but which renders them rather uninteresting fea- tures of the landscape. A true description of the so-called walls, but which we shall term embankments, will be best understood if given in connection with a description of their origin. When a pile of sand, obtained from the river shore, has been left by the Workmen for a long time exposed to the washings of the rains, the gravel which it contains, and which at first is hardly visible, becomes in some cases even more conspicuous than the sand itself, because a part of the latter has been Wasted, while the gravel remains. Thus it has been upon an extended scale with the drift, which, as before stated, is Composed of bowlders, gravel, sand, clay, and soil, although little except the latter is usually seen upon the prairie sur- faces. Sometimes the drift is more than a hundred feet 148 THE LAKES OF IOWA, — PAST AND PRESENT. thick, and all the bowlders contained in the whole mass which has been swept out to form the valleys have gradually : rolled down upon their slopes, and many of them into tle streams. For this reason we usually find them more mume- up the for e ial beneath its w anpali, to be carried away in the form of muddy water at the times of its overflow, leaving the bowlders and gravel strewn upon its bed; w they may not be seen at all upon the prairie surfaces al them. ) - This latter fact being misunderstood has led to the a l position, that, being abanns upon those surfaces, they M been gathered up by human hands and carried to the ‘shor’ | to build the “walls” of; while the truth is, the embank ments, as well as the presence of the materials of sti they are composed, are due to natural causes alone, we | their origin is wholly referrible to the periodic action of 1, f aided in some degree by the force of the waves. The water in the lakelets is usually very low in late tumn, and when winter comes it is sometimes frozen nal | to the bottom in their deepest parts, so that occasionally | all the fish are killed by this means. The ice, of freezes fast to the bowlders as well as to whatever els! be within its reach, and the expansive power of from one five miles of freezing water is exerted upon them in @ tion from the centre towards the shores,—a powe! more than sufficient to move the largest bowlders upon gentle slopes, | - The embankments are from two to six feet high, a two to twenty feet across the top, and always separato piece of ground from the lake; because where the 0 shore is a little abrupt, and higher than the high-water no embankment is formed, but the bowlders are ! thrust against the shore with such force as to j . and often thickly studded with them. i | ) | THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 149 Meeting no such obstruction on a marshy side, the material thrust out accumulates just where the expansive force of the ice is spent. This process repeated year after year, from age to age, has cleared the bottom of the lakelets of their bowlders and other materials, and piled them up in circular ridges upon their shores; and these are the “walls” which have excited so much wonder. It has been observed that the embankments are heaviest on the sides opposite the pre- vailing winds. This may be accounted for, at least in part, by the fact that the ice being burdened with the material to which it has frozen fast, would thus be floated against those shores when the spring floods had raised the water of the lakes; and in part also by the farther fact that the dashing of the waves would be most constant against those shores. Thus it will be seen that whatever was originally upon the bottom, whether bowlders, gravel, sand, or mud, has been carried to the shore, and we find the embankments composed of all these materials arranged in perfectly natural disorder. If bowlders were numerous, the embankment is largely com- posed of them. If sand prevailed, a broadly rounded em- bankment is formed, just such as we should expect from such material; and where a peat marsh extends out into the land, an embankment of turf is thrown up at the water’s edge, which, being supported by living rootlets, is frequently high and very narrow. The latter are somewhat numerous, and are often called beaver-dams ; but this is also a miscon- ception, because beavers never attempt to dam still waters. ey dam running streams to obtain pouds of still water. Thus we see that the same natural force placed the bowlders im the embankments that brought them down from their northern homes, namely, the expansive power of ice. If its crust should remain perfectly stable long enough, the earth would become nearly a perfect sphere by the disinte- gration of its exposed substance, and the levelling force of Stavitation. It is true that its inequalities of, surface are 150 THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. now very insignificant compared with the vastness of its bulk ; but, in such a case, there would be no mountains, 10 islands, no continents. All would be an endless and shore- less sea, The erosion. of the river valleys, and the conse | quent drainage of a majority of the primitive lakelets, my | be regarded as the first steps in this levelling process, after the glaciers had ceased from the Great Valley ; for its post- glacial geology seems to warrant no subdivision into epochs | such as are made for other regions. Therefore the wholes here referred to the Terrace epoch. Long before this levee ling process can approach completion, beg elevations aul ao hidio will be formed upon the changing surface. . Set, then, how small a part of such a ailé hag been accom: plished eyen by the erosion of the valleys of the great Mis sissippi and its branches. A part of the primitive lakeles $ and a part of the original surface of the drift still remain | almost unchanged since their formation. The prairies hae still their ocean-like surfaces, and the greatest change th lakelets have undergone in that immense Japee of time ste formation of their insignificant embankments, if aught nature may be called insignificant. Let us look a little what has been accomplished by erosion in the Great Me during the Terrace epoch as before defined. ‘Along the courses. of what are now the Mississippi Missouri Rivers, large depressions formerly existed formed lake-like expansions of those rivers. Thus after Mississippi had made for itself a definite valley, hut a it had cut its channel down to its present level t tie f rocky obstruction at the Keokuk rapids, that portion of which borders a large part of the eastern side of Towa” little else than a lake : which averaged about five miles and filled the space between what are now the bl horder each side of its broad flat valley. R PRR O a ; “It will be oe that,the word valtey is used with two separate sig one applied to the hydrographic basin drained by a certain prin nip stream streath, tributari mits an the other to the depression occupied by any particular Which its waters have cut out of the general surface. THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 151 This is proven by the existence there of terraces composed of very fine sedimentary material such as could have been deposited only in comparatively still waters, and also by the existence in that sediment of shells which inhabit still waters only,—the same species which now inhabit fresh-water lakes. River shells, such as now exist in the river, are found on the sides of the bluffs near the rapids at a height of seventy feet above the present high-water mark; and since such beds of shells exist only at low-water mark when alive, upward of eighty feet must be estimated as the height of the river above its present level at the time they lived. It will be observed that river, and not lacustrine shells are found near the rapids. This is accounted for by the fact that the obstruction which caused them, being a flinty forma- tion, and not so easily disintegrated as the other rocks are over which the river runs, has existed as such from its ear- liest history. Consequently the water there always had a considerable current, while farther to the northward there was too little current to produce a congenial habitat for those shells. The estimated eighty feet is doubtless only a part of the actual height from which the erosion of the Mississippi Valley has reached, because it now aver- ages about two hundred feet deep from the general prairie Surface. Thus we see that when that lake-like expansion existed in the Mississippi River, its valley had already been eroded to a considerable depth, and the Terrace epoch was Well advanced. But on the other side of the State we have - Proof of the existence, in the early part of that epoch, of a lake which was larger and deeper than Lake Erie. This Proof consists principally in the presence there of a peculiar “Acustrine deposit extending at least from the Big Sioux to the mouth of the Kansas River, and from twenty to thirty Miles on each side of the Missouri River, through which the tter has cut its present valley, in some places to a depth of More than two hundred feet before it reached the drift which Was deposited there during the Glacial epoch. That mate- 152 THE LAKES OF IOWA,— PAST AND PRESENT. rial is known to have been deposited in fresh water, because | only fresh-water shells are found in it, and they are found in | it from top to bottom. It is known to have been deposited | in still water, because the same kinds of shells are now living in still water only, and because the whole deposit is a fine | homogeneous material without sand, gravel, bowlders, or any thing else, except what would have been deposited in a lake | of muddy water. é | It has been claimed by a few geologists that at the clot | of the Glacial epoch a shallow fresh-water lake occupie : the whole hydrographic basin of the Mississippi, and that the fine soil and subsoil of the prairies and other lands of the f whole region, as well as the peculiar deposit just referred to, {f are identical in their formation, and had their origin in one | . and the same broad lake. Upon this hypothesis some have l accounted for the origin of the prairies and for the absen gi of trees upon them; but the fact is, prairies exist upon e l these deposits, and it would require direct effort to kep | all kinds of indigenous trees from encroaching upon i prairies if there were no annual fires. . It is not improbable that such a wide-spread ee physical characters from the deposit under discussion, © evidently had a different, as well as a subsequent Or These circumstances seem to leave no room to doubt t well-defined lake existed there after the continent great part become dry land, but before the great rivers, cut their valleys down to any considerable depth. lake, although so large and deep, was doubtless filled ' sediment to the general prairie level within a comp short time after the glaciers ceased, just as the sedi r the same river which then flowed into and from iti speedily fills the reservoirs of the St. Louis Water so that they must often be reéxcavated. Just as ther THE LAKES OF IOWA,— PAST AND PRESENT. 153 river would now fill with the same kind of sediment any de- pression, however large, if such existed in its course. The great northern lakes are not thus tilled, because their tributary streams are pure; and their streams are pure be- cause they flow over geological formations that are not easily disintegrated ; while the main tributary of that ancient lake, the Missouri River, is even now one of the muddiest stream on the globe. In the earlier portion of the Terrace epoch it was, if possible, more so; for then as now, it gathered up its sediment from that broad region occupied by the friable rocks of the Tertiary and Mesozoic ages, stretching far away toward the Rocky Mountains, at that time strewn with the grindings fresh from those “mills of the gods”—the glaciers. he formation of the basin in which the lake rested is known to have taken place during the Glacial epoch, because the drift, with its striated bowlders, now covers its bottom beneath the lacustrine deposit, and because the cutting out of the river valley has exposed, in a number of places, the stratified rocks which the drift rests upon, whose surfaces were scored and striated by the moving glaciers of that epoch. It is known that the filling of the lake with sediment occurred in the early part of the Terrace epoch, because it was filled up even with the prairie surfaces, which would not have been done if the Missouri River had first eroded its valley to any considerable depth below the lake. We know that the lake was so far filled with sediment before it was drained, that it was little else than a marsh, because the top of that deposit of sediment is now nearly even with the higher prairie surfaces, and because the river bluffs which it forms are as high as those formed of the usual materials, —the drift and stratified rocks. The physical characters of this lacustrine deposit are so Peculiar, that they attract the attention of every person who becomes acquainted with it, although a stranger might pass Over the formation without observing more than its peculiar Cutline of bluffs. It is perfectly uniform in character and AMER, NATURALIST, VOL. IL. 20 154 THE LAKES OF IOWA,— PAST AND PRESENT. color from top to bottom, and a hundred miles of distance show no more difference than a hundred feet. It is ofa slightly yellowish ash-color, except where rendered darker by decaying vegetation, very fine, not sandy, and yet | adhesive. At the surface it makes excellent soil, and is just as fertile if obtained at a depth of two hundred feet. Itis _ easily excavated by the spade alone, and yet it remains st unchangeable by the atmosphere and frost, that wells dug in it require to be walled only to a point just above the water- line, while the remainder stands so securely without suppot that the spade-marks remain upon it for many years. - d embankments upon the sides of excavations stand likes wall, showing the names of ambitious carvers long after at ordinary bank of earth would have disappeared. As thii part of the valley of the Missouri River below the lake deepened during the Terrace epoch by the natural process of erosion, the peculiar material which its own waters hal | | previously deposited offered little obstruction to that po cess, but was readily swept out again as muddy water, af sent on its way to the sea. Thus no more of it was than served to form the valley, which is from four to t miles wide, while the larger part remained, forming * bluffs, and extending far inland from the river. The #0" tary streams which at first emptied into the lake, now tr its ancient bed of sediment to the river, and have eut their own valleys to meet it. The sides of these 7 _ where they traverse that sedimentary deposit are steep the river-bluffs, and the streams being smaller, their arè narrow and very deep. This is particularly | all those Iowa streams that empty into the Missouri above Council Bluffs, and they thus present great OF a the construction of lines of railway directly east and through that State. For this reason, and for the pur connecting with the great Pacific Railway at ye more northern of those lines are diverging to the SOM g down the valleys of the streams, instead of crossing them» | k l THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. 155 that passengers will pass dry-shod through the bed of that ancient lake, although many fathoms beneath the level at which its waters used to rest. The peculiar outline of the bluffs along the Missouri River valley is one of the most interesting features of this remark- able deposit. As one views them in the distance, and in their nakedness, for they are often entirely destitute of trees, towering up from the level bottom-land, sometimes more than two hundred feet in height, so steep in some places that a man cannot climb them, he can hardly rid himself of the idea that they are supported by a frame-work of rocks as other bluffs are. Yet not a rock* or pebble of any kind or size exists above their base of drift, except a few calcareous concretions which were formed from the limy water that now percolates through the whole mass. The form and arrange- ment of their numerous rounded prominences sometimes present views of impressive beauty as they stretch away in the distance, or form bold curves in the line of hills. A few miles below the city of Council Bluffs, they present a full crescentic front to the westward, with the broad Mis- . souri bottom stretching miles away from their base to the river. Their only vegetation here is a covering of wild grasses, and as the mound-like peaks and rounded ridges jut above each other, or diverge in various directions while they recede backwards and upwards to the higher lands, the set- ting sun throws strange and weird shadows across them, Producing a scene quite in keeping with that wonderful his- tory of the past of which they form a part. REVIEWS. —o - THE AMERICAN BEAVER AND HIS Works.*—Mr. Morgan has, in elaborate work, given us a thoroughly accurate and most entertaining at count of an animal whose instincts and habits and economical value h attracted universal attention. The work is illustrated by lithograj d their surroundi a { part of North America,” offering a rare opportunity for a careful study this creature. An anatomical chapter by Dr. W. W. Ely, and a geological accol precedes the history of beaver-dams, lodges, burrows, canals, mea trails, and their means of subsistence, which are followed by chapters the mode of trapping the beaver, and its psychology. Besides the common brown beaver, there occasionally occur a ™ form and albinos. “In form the beaver is short between the fore hind legs, head heavy and clumsy, and his motions are slow and awk’ He walks with a waddling gait, with his back slightly arched, wit body barely clearing the ground, and his tail dragging upon it;” s ` i animal. It uses its tail to assist variously in swimming and diving give an alarm by striking the surface of the water, giving a reper x can be heard half a mile; and also as a trowel to “pack and je mud and earth while constructing a lodge or dam, which he m heavy and repeated down strokes.” ‘They pair, and, with their ofSP $ live in the family relation until the latter attain maturity, when ee forced to leave the parent lodge.” But they do not live in though two or more such families inhabit the same pond, and ti years; carries its young from three to four months, bringing them” usually in May, “and from two to five and sometimes six at 4 * The American Beaver and his Works. By Lewis H. Morgan. P = xi, 330. With plates and illustrations, ‘ - (156) j f : i 7 REVIEWS. 157 ` The author states that even the largest dams are the work of a single constant repairs. Grass Lake dam, the largest one, perhaps, in North i ixty fe teen feet on the lower face. It has been supposed to kre an Tii be high intelligence that the beaver built its dam so as to ¢ eup s where the pressure of the water is the greatest, but the ehje ryen questions whether these curves are the result of accident or design. large streams. The dam generally curves down in those streams that discharge the largest volume of water, when also the dams are shorter and lower than those on the smaller brooks.” The great dam on Grass Lake, so fully described, “contains upwards of seven thousand cubic feet of solid materials.” This dam is also sup- plemented by an upper and a lower dam to break the force of the stream in freshets; the lower one setting the water back to the depth of twelve or fifteen Ionian in the great curve. Such structures are remarkable in- Stances of prevision and engineering skill, reminding us of the intelli- gence shown by the Agricultural Ant of Texas, which, according to Dr. Lincec cum, erects mounds on the “pavement” of its formicary in dry Weather, in anticipation of the rainy season! n excavating this artificial canal for transporting their wood by wat to their lodges, Bag evince the most intelligence and “a Riba i and extended process of reasoning,” though the work is simpler than ea a dam, ad like the latter, requires many years of continuous Like all close and patient observers of the habits of aaa the author believes that animals have a reason different only in degre m that of man. “When a beaver stands for a moment and looks a his work, evidently to see whether it is right, and whether anything else is needed, e shows himself capable of holding his thoughts before his beaver Pout in other wo rds, he is conscious of his own mental processes.” canal is not absolutely necessary to beavers any more than such a work ‘ mankind; but it comes to both alike, as the result of progress in miowiedge. A beaver canal could only be conceived by a lengthy and nM — ee abteddly , when the canal first came into use; and a time, conse- ntly, when it was entirely unknown.” The author hence argues a pro- T y knowledge, and hence improvement “from a lower toa higher 158 REVIEWS. artificial state of life;” and the possession of a ‘‘free intelligence,” i mals, the dog, fox, cats, etc. He ascribes memory, ean BPE and passions and an intellect to dumb animals, and of Dr. Kane’s lunatic dog as an evidence that these animals h ion to -mt TRANSACTIONS OF THE CHICAGO ACADEMY.*—We congratulate | Chicago Academy that this splendid volume, after vexatious de caused by two fires, has at length appeared. It contains an Western Paleontology, by Professor J. H. McChesney, and Descriptio of Sub-carboniferous and raid hi de Fossils, collected in the Geological Survey, by Dr. White and Mr. O. H. St. John. Dr. $ Great Lakes. Mr. F. B. Meek has an article on the Geology of the Vall of the McKenzie a the notes and ane collected by the Inte Robert d American Birds in ‘ee sce of the a dielati, iHustrated with b s an ‘“ Proceedings,” and recently dedicated its new and spacious M Science is carefully eias in the ahas ; the railroad companies the officers of the Academy with free passes and free freightage their roads, and liberally extend whe facilities and courtesies t to ralists nye in scientific explorations. PoPuL ce REVIEW, jrunaeid (London). — M. Trée ul bas ered the ilsténks of minute vegetable organisms Campton the hea tye of Helianthus tuberosus, the Jerusalem artichoke. m been regarded as a decided proof of the spontaneous ne of ieee The Review objects that vegetable forms 0 may enter the tissues of animals. There is no more wonder reade in the history of Paviindpedpesia: or d dadeibgie ent from asexu — M. Donné, who has so long and ably inna the heterodox t spontaneous generation, has cried peccavi. He admitted that researches, so far from supporting april ciety him of racy of the views of his old opponent, M. Paste 0. * Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Vol. 1, Part I. reat Po 1867, With a map and eighteen pepdnnee plates and numerous wood-cuts: part. (This merely covers the cost of publ NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 159 UARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, January (London).— Signor Cocchi announces the discovery of a human skull in the lower beds of the Lower Post-pliocene strata in ‘Italy. This lower portion consists of lacustrine - clays of great thickness, with layers of peat towards its superior margin ; it contains bones of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), Cervus euryceros, ison priscus, and a species (probably new) of the Horse, Equus; it has also yielded stone implements and a human cranium, the latter from the plain of the Aretino. Whether this deposit be termed Lower Post-plio- cene, or anything else, there seems little room for doubt that the skull and that Man lived in Italy contemporaneously with those animals.— The term Gregarine applied to the Chignon Fungus (see NATURALIST, vol. 1, p. 379), is most inappropriate, as is admitted both by Drs. Fox and Beigel. It is the Pleurococcus Beigelii. The Gregarine are indubitably animals, and are internal parasites. i; i NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. BOTANY. Viratiry of Serps.—Dr. Gray, in his “How Plants Grow,” says, ine, which have been preserved for two or 3 = © a J G3 =. 5 zA cet & Q O & Ss El 5 ge Q & £ i=) n ct $ co © B © [æ] ct n e] = © $9 = kong ® = 4 =A c+ m aH oo © F &® 1856, the Arabs were dragging forth from the mummy-pits great numbers of mummies. He ry often in the hands were found grains of wheat, dura, flax, and the nut of From the hand of one was thrown out the seed-cup of a 160 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. rose, which he picked up and brought away with him. This hesu sequently gave, while residing at Quincy, Ill., to Mrs. Gov. Wood. | opening the seed-cup, she found several seeds, which she planted in: flower-pot, in her cease idee e. In the course of three weeks, two 9 these germinated, and, the next year, blossomed, producing a pink rose, unlike any American variety with which they were acqual The estimated age of the mummy, from which the seed-cup was t was twenty-five hundred years Dr. Marks has in his possession some seeds of the dura (which supposes to be the corn spoken of in the Book of Genesis), obtained t him from Egyptian T mummies; but he has never tested their vitality. He testifies. avers’ to the fact of some dura seeds having been foul in the hand of a mummy unrolled at Springfield, Ill., a few years sin, which were planted by the Rev. Albert Hale, pastor of the First P terian Church in that city, and which produced the same year sè talks, as large as Indian corn, and covered over with clusters fruit rae matured. s throwing some light on the causes of this wonderful presé of vitality, Dr. Marks states that the mummy-pits are perfectly dry, ' situated from three to five hundred feet above the level of the Nile cut out of the rock of the mountain, which is a soft pune limestou The pits are never either cold or damp.—Gro. L. CAR [If these seeds had been only thirty or forty years s old their prom germination, although -77 Mae those who are in the abit of old seeds know how difficult it is to make any old pe br deception by the Arabs, than that seeds 2, Ga old actually grew-— Bres vs. Fruir.—It is high time, we may add, that the Pet emy of Science were in full operation in Essex County, when pa towns votes to “abate the nuisance” of bees, on the are injurious to fruit! Hh As to the nectar of the red clover being out of the reach oF aea bee, it may be asked whether this be the case with the eee to? ing of the second crop of red clover is thought to be owing * greater abundance of bumble-bees in oe latter part of . GRAY. these curious facts. That the Drosera catches flies in this way ever, known to botanists and recorded in botanical works century ago. But the statement attracted little attention, and fi aie died out of the books. It was re-discovered by Mr. Darwin, IM NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 161 perhaps a dozen years ago, but I know not whether his esos are published, except by a brief allusion in the Gardeners’ Chron He found, as did Mr. M illington, that while the bristles will close ca a bit of raw meat, they are not sensitive to an inorganic body; yet that they are So to a bit of carbonate of ammonia. Mr. Darwin followed up this subject by Some very interesting observations and experiments upon the Venus Fly-trap, Dionea, which, with some recent ones made in this country, may soon be published. — A. Gra FLOWERING OF HEPATICA TRILOBA. ‘— March 12th, I found three Hepa- ticas in blossom, and on March 29th, I gathered quite a handful.—J. H. Sears, Danvers, Muss. ZOOLOGY. INSTANCES OF EERTE AMONG OUR BIRDS. — In a recent number of e NATURALIST, a cor ent mentions a ‘Singular Variety” of the tial albinism which is, perhaps, not so rare among birds as it is generally Supposed to be. When we remember what an extremely small percent- r Tather is, that so many albinos are found. In the course of a few seasons iega I have met with the following instances of albinism, partial or mpl te. oriad ow-bird (Junco Oregonus). A specimen shot at Fort Whip- 9 Arizona, Dec. 12, 1864, has a large, somewhat circular, pure white Spot on the io distinctly Gedned against the surrounding dark colors. The plumage is therwise perfe ctly AE. oe (Sint sialis). A curious specimen, with a ured white rt on the back of the neck; otherwise seh sy normal in plumage. I have seen this species oe snow-white, with (probably) pink eyes, 4nd flesh-colored bill and fe th in (Turdus siigratorine). With a large white spot on each side of e head, formed y the enlargement and coalescence of the white spots konia Jend dued about the eyes. The robin also occurs in snow- plu Bank ai (Cotyle riparia). With the upper parts delicate pale sil- The erty the under parts pure white, as usual. This is the only instance inm Yellow-backed Warbler (Pariite Americana). This is, in some » the most curious example of partial albinism I have ever seen. beetrring in a a family of birds little liable to this abnormity. The entire Wakes age is ana and patched aira Pelee! the natural colors appearing Paces between the white a AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. 1. 162 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroeca coronata). All the slate and ish colors are replaced by dull silvery gray The common Quail ( Ortyx Virginiana) is vocina found with tints so light, dull, and faded as to fairly be considered albinotic. s a specimen in this condition in the Smithsonian Institution. sion, “a white blackbird” is hardly so paradoxical as it might seem; indicates as hry established a fact as that ‘‘ blackberries are red ey are g k The Biy Guillemot -> gry e and the Sea-dove (Mergulus are both very obnoxi albini and, in fact, each has described in this sep as a mtii species. But the albinotic dition of the Black Guillemot must not be confounded with its m winter o which is nearly white. The albino has no black ever about it; the eyes are pink, and the bill and feet flesh-colored. he pede of albinism among the large Gulls of the genus 4 reine unusual interest. The study of this condition among birds is more than a matter of simple curiosity; having im ? of plumage. The bird referred to is abont the size of, or ke than the Burgomaster (L. glaucus). If it is really a valid § would constitute the only known exception to the rule, that all the Lari have the ba a nd wings nme than the under parts. The Phila an I Red-throated Diver (Colymbus septentrionalis), It is nearly with av eyes and flesh-colored bill and feet. e opposite of albinism — Melanism—is an extremely rare At om moment I can recall but a single instance of its occurrence: white upon or under the wings. In this state it has been dest distinct species ( Uria “unicolor”).—Dr. ELLIOTT COUES; RETURN or THE Breps.—The following birds, which left ® southern quarters about November pe see to the vicinity vers, Mass., in numbers, at the dates giv ild Geese passed to the northward yee 26; Black bins, Red-shouldered Hawks, Blue-jays arrived March 2; Gold-finches, Lesser Red-poll Linnets, March 4; Star-DI ™ Woodcocks, March 8; Golden- winged Woodpeckers, ha Bluebirds, March 12; Red-winged Blackbirds, Swamp » low-winged Sparrows, March 15; Common Pewees, Marsh H ; 25; Wood-ducks, Crow Blackbirds, March 26; White-bellied (four specimens), March 27.—J. H. Sears, Danvers. iS ier rata des ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR. 163 GEOLOGY. FossıL INsects.—In Mr. Scudder’s paper in the February number, allusion was made to a fossil lace- winged insect which appeared to have ae oe at the base of the wing, like that of crickets and ome grasshoppers. We give here a figure (Fig. 1) of this — seth called by Mr. Scudder Xenoneura antiquorum. We ave also copied the figure (Fig. ~ of the a caterpil- lar (Palwocampa anthrax), which Messrs. Mee and Worthen have described in the Report the Geology of Illinois. Mr. Scudder believes a Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. 2, Palson- tology, 1866, state ne Hose specimen is not in a condition to show the head or feet; yet we strongly inclined to believe from its form, and peculiar regularly iiss bundles of hairs, that it is a Caterpillar. If we are right in this suggestion, = discovery is certainly an interesting one, as it would present an evidence of the existence of Lepidopterous ch Sects, at a much earlier period in our world’s history than has hithert been Suspected.” It was found near the base of the Coal-measures, sha ris, Illinois ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR. =a a cerasi. laid, and the ies in July, 164 ENTOMOLOGICAL CALENDAR. g or thirty eggs in a crease in the leaf of the young plant. In r days, in warm weather, they hatch, and the pale-red larvæ “era of the plant. Here they imbibe the sap by suction alone, and, by the simple pressure of their bodies, become imbedded in the side of the ste T hree larvæ thus imbedded serve to weaken the plant, and ca it to wither and die. The second brood of larve remains t winter in the flax-seed, or puparium. By turning the stubble with | plough in the autumn and early spring, its puparium may be de and thus its ravages may be checked. (Fig. 1 represents the femi which is about one-fourth as large as a mosquito: a, the larva; byt pupa; and c mini o the joint near the ground where the maggi live.) The same may be said of the Wheat-midge (Cecidomyia ii which eee 8 wheat in the ear, and which transforms an inch beneath the surface Among the iiastachiea which appear this month are the Turnip fly (Pontia eee which lays its eggs the last of the month. hatch in a week or ten days, and in about two weeks the larva ¢ rood appears in August and September. Vanessa J-album and V-t rogationis appear in May, and again in August ig ae caterpillars of the latter species live on the elm e, and Grapta comma also feeds on the hop. Alypia AE flies | time, and in August its larva feeds on the grape. Sphinx gordius olina, and other Sphinges and Sesia (the Clear-winged Moth); £ t of May. Arctia Arge, A. virgo, A. phalerata, and other § from the last of May through the summer. Hyphantria t Wearer, is found in May and June. The moth of the Salt- Fig.2a. pillar appears at this time, and various ‘Cut-worms (Agrotis) abound, hiding in es a and atten blossoms of flowers and a fruit t The Wite-pin Weevil (Pissodes — strobi, Fig. re: larva; Fig. 2b, pupa; and Fig. 2, beetle) flies warm days. We have found its burrows winding irregularly inner surface of the bark and leading into the sap-wooe- Bach which it hybernates, in the middle of March, contains the yellow” PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 165 footless grub. Early in abr it changes to a pupa, and a month after the beetle =a and in a few days deposits its egg under the bark of old pine tre It also ov aaa in the terminal shoots of we yor . race and permanently deform- ing the tree. Associated with this we Sent found the sma waar round- Cylindrical bark-borers, pein are little round weevil-like beetles, are now flying about fruit-trees, to lay their eggs in the bark. Associated with the Pissodes, we found in vaste the galleries of Tomicus pini, branch- mg out from a common centre. They are filled up with fine capt and, Fig.5 according to Dr. Fitch, are notched in Fig R a f the si lery.” Fidd little beetles have not the \ os snout of the Ptg hence they annot bore through the outer bark, but enter a iis burrows made the pre eine year, and eyed the eggs along the side (Fitch). Another Tomicus, more dangerous than the preced- ing, arel exclusively in the sap-wood, running sag galleries for a distance of two inches towards the centre of the tree. We figure Tom- icus Ejtögräpkis Say (Fig. 5). It is the most formidable enemy to the white pine in the North, and the yellow pine in the South that we have. It also flies in May. Ptinus fur (Fig. 6) is now found in out-houses, and is destructive to cloth, furs, etc., resembling the Larder-beetle (Dermes- tes) in its habits. It is fourteen-hundredths of an inch in length. PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. peeun. ha ADEMY ATURAL Sciences. Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 1867 y ays echitased | a Ph specimen of Malachite; he also exhibited several pensan of hair from Albino negroes. Dr. Leidy spoke of the white bino, and mentioned that the term “‘ wool” was a misnomer as app: 166 PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. to the hair of the negro; the EPN between the races being those pertaining to the form of the s i Oct. a E. Coues, U. a vet presented a paper entitled, “Ni on a Collection Ff Mammals from Arizona.” Professor Fe animals, accompanied be bones of man, with pott — stone arrow-heals, and hatchets from the ala strata. He called attention v t. 22d. — Professor Wood presented some remarks on a fresh- alga from the Drena i gi in Mono county, os which yee x apoda, with the description of a new yrim from maa by Hor C. Wood, jr. Oct. 29th.— Mr. Lyman exhibited a map of the Pennsylvania -a è rmation 0 e also . mentions beds in the vicini thickness, from eleven to sixteen feet, free from cane OSTON SOCIETY or NATURAL History. Oct. 16, 1867.— Prot diate upon the antiquity of man. He said that fifty’7® bo a ents of science, until now we are forced to cast a biien and construct our chronology from a new and indepe PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 167 Twelve years ago, Ferdinand Keller, of Zurich, by his examination of the lake _ of agent or to light proofs of the existence of races of men with new acters of civilization. These oe astonished a world, and ponte since given rise to a new science, new so- i new museums. Humanity is now connected ar paea pheno seni the presence of such large mammals as the Elephas primi- genius, ai tichorinus, Bos primigenius and Ursus spelaeus, was considered the dividing line between geclogical and human history,— now the extensive researches of such able naturalists as Lartet, Von Baer, Riitimeyer, and Brandt, have proved that these quadrupeds were once contemporaneous with man. The question before us is whether we can establish a successive chronology of events since the appearance of these animals upon the earth. Brandt has attempted to show that they were living within the historical period, and has argued therefrom that the partly unknown, because written in the Sclavonic tongue; these re cat the existence of Bos primigenius in the forests of Lithuania and Poland up to the 11th and 13th centuries. The presence of Cervus megaceros in the marshes of Europe up to the 14th century is also made proba There is no doubt Sia the fauna of the diluvial deposits and of the European caves consisted of animals, some of which, at least, had a circumpolar nae eR ra neei and that the southern limits of animals now living in the polar regions was once much greater than the Pyrenees and . had intimate relations with the ice period, and it becomes necessary for us to investigate the extent of the ice-fields at the time when the glacial period was at its height. Professor Agassiz believed that the — in extent which our ice-fields have undergone during successive Periods, would furnish us with data for our chronology. In America, the ice- ni. at the time of their greatest extension with indefinite limits, reached the 32d degree of north latitude. In Europe they extended r as the plains of Lombardy. Subsequent to this came a limited = lis to veg estion whether we had any means of connecting renology with dees rity it might be stated pa none of the cave proved to exist prior to the time of the greatest a of ed, the ice-fields, as it can no longer be doubted that man lived contemporaneously 168 CORRESPONDENCE. with these Pane he believed that, with the waning of the ice-period, began the era of primeval man. In the successive epochs of the ice, in- dicated by nk eai arieehs ice, we have a relative chronology ; when we ask for more specific pistomionts of age, we find ourselves at once at a loss for an answer. Som oa a might be seen in the abrasions of rocks of unequal hardness, ae instances were cited in illustration of this. he - In the course of the cho which followed these remarks, sot restr said he hoped for great results from the investigations now um dertaking in our own country, and believed that marks of the reinder would yet be found in the Carolinas a ANA CORRESPONDENCE. D J. H.F., New York. —There is SERAS - jse ork í - American Cryptogamic Botany. For w on ens, Sood the NATURALIST, Vol. I, p. 326. You ws ce the puree works of a Cooke, noticed in this Shan very useful. F. W. W., Concord, Mass.—There is no complete American weet Taxidermy. See, however, NATURALIST, Vol. I, p. 160, O. F., Needham Plain, Mass.—For works on American see Nirit Vol. I, p. 160, 441, day the last number ubscri to ‘The Guide to the Study of Insects,” which will be “abs in autumn, may be sent to us. L. A. R., Bucks, Ohio. — The specimen you inclose is a fossil £ Club-moss, Lepidodendron, which occurs abundantly in the shale i nelo ing coal-beds. Specimens from your region would be very ai The Kangaroo Mouse you speak of is the Jaculus Hudsonicus, an well known as inhabiting nearly all the United States. The SP Dipodomys, to which Dr. Coues refers in his papers in the NATUR: TURALIST “Kangaroo Rats and Mice,” are not known to occur east of the sippi. N. T. T., Bethel, Me.—The substance to which you refer is the water Sponge (Spongilla fluviatilis). It occurs commonly in ” and sluggish brooks and rivers of Maine, and southward. Tee ee BOOKS RECEIVED. and his Works. By Lewis H. vie ih Pian pee the a ti a Tann Jan. 30, 1868; r whi path — ‘Pran Progress of the og Survey, etc., e ney. San Francisco, 1868. 8yo. 14, 15, 14. 1868. Papers from * T American B Ria p y W. W. Ely. eres bigpinceri & Co. wap 46—77, goti ; l e Field. pep 4,21. London, Cosmos. February is, March 7. Pari American Bee Journ April. Washington. ee Hear 7 mi ‘ammals from Arizona. By Elliott Coues, M. D» Pp ll Pg a = AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. II.— JUNE, 1868.—No. 4. THE WARBLERS. BY T. MARTIN TRIPPE. OF all the various tribes of the feathered race that pour into the Northern and Middle States every spring, there is not one that will compare in beauty of plumage, and exquisiteness of form, with the family of the Warblers (Sylvicolide) . Combining all that we admire in birds, and Visiting us only in the most delightful season of the year, it 1S ho wonder that they have been so much praised and ad- mired. And yet they are very imperfectly known; even the Specific rank of some of them seems scarcely to be established ; while the breeding habits of many are as little known now, as they were in the days of Audubon and Wil- son. Of late years, however, much has been accomplished In this direction ; and, before long, we may hope to become as well acquainted with all of them, even the rarest, as we how are with the common yellow warbler. Although some of the warblers are undoubtedly very rare, their general scarcity has been much exaggerated. That this should have been so, fifty years ago, is not surprising, when we consider the extremely short period during which most e them are found with us, sometimes not exceeding two or three days. In some instances, I have known a particular Entered accordi i s ng to Act of Congress, in the year 1 or tiet Massach s SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of tne Lictriet oust of the District of Mas marr > -d AMER. NATURALIST, VOL, II. 2% 8 170 THE WARBLERS. species to be extremely abundant during a single forenoon, while scarcely a single individual was to be seen during th rest of the spring, so quickly do they come and go. But that this should still be the case; that errors, which were made perhaps unavoidably, by Audubon and Wilson, should stl be perpetuated, is a matter of surprise and regret. Som species are much more abundant now than they were in the | days of the older ornithologists, and some probably scare” Thus, both Audubon and Wilson mention the chestnut-sided : warbler as one of the rarest of all, whereas it is now vey abundant. Another general error was, in stating that they all withdrew to the far north to breed. ‘There are, probably, very few of the species that enter the New England Stati that will not be found to raise their young in some patt f its territory, large portions of which have not as yet - scientifically explored. Little attention, likewise, seems t0 eved, notes, particularly the latter. In the following brief ye it is my intention to give a short account of eac oft 4 members of this interesting family, and to notice, e i especially, such_ particulars as are not generally know’ : regard to their songs, as have fallen under my observa the The Pine-creeping Warbler (Dendroica pinus) © — first of the family to visit us in the spring, and arrives my locality in the latitude of New York, about the po April. I have never known it to be very abundant, t it is seldom scarce. It affects, principally, the o woods, but is often met with in other places. Its songs rather note, for it can scarcely be said to have a song” rapid chatter, quite different from that of any other W" | though it bears some resemblance to that of the Myiod pusillus. -_ THE WARBLERS. 171 Soon after the pine-warbler has arrived, generally not more than four or five days, the Yellow Red-polled Warbler (D. palmarum) makes his appearance. Not very familiar, and yet not shy, they betake themselves to the decidu- ous woods, where, in numerous companies or small parties, they spend a couple of weeks, and then pursue their journey north. Ihave never heard them utter any other notes than a sharp “chuck,” and a low chirp, which seems to be com- mon to all the family, and can scarcely be distinguished in the different species. Unlike the other members of the par- ticular subdivision of the family to which they belong, the Wood-warblers (Sylvicolee), they often descend to the ground, where they run about with as much agility as the Maryland yellow-throat. Another peculiarity which char- acterizes-them is the habit they have of jerking their tails, in the same way as the pewee, though they do not do it nearly so often as that bird does. In October, they return in large numbers, dwelling now in the open fields and woods indiffer- ently. They are the last of their tribe to leave us in the fall. The Yellow-crowned Warbler (D. coronata) arrives about the time that the preceding species is leaving us, from the fifteenth to the twentieth of April. This is one of the most abundant and familiar of the class. It has a very sweet song, or warble, which it utters at short intervals in the early morning ; its habits are too well known to require any farther notice. Another bird of this family, differing in name as well as in general appearance from its associates, is the Black and White Creeper (Mniotilta varia), which, although a creeper y name, is a true warbler. It arrives about the twentieth of April, and although most of them pass farther north to , many spend the summer with us. Its breeding habits are well known; and, from various causes, it is one of the most favorite of the cow-blackbird’s adopted nurses. I once found a nest of this bird with eight eggs in it, five of which Were those of the cow-bird, and the other three her own. 172 THE WARBLERS, There was much dispute among ornithologists some time as to whether the cow-bird ever laid more than one egg the same nest. It was finally admitted that there were some times two placed in the same nest, but that one of th were all sound, and had, apparently, been hatching for days. Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, formed me, that, in company with Dr. Brewer, he fot t three eggs in a nest of the creeper, and that they considerel which it possesses quite a variety. Its most frequent in spring, is a very fine, almost shrill song ; but besides | it sometimes, though rarely, gives utterance to a soft, li warble, quite like that of the redstart. oe It is, perhaps, superfluous to speak of the Yellow Warbler (D. estiva). This, as is well known, is the commonest tl most familiar of all its family ; and, spending the spring wi summer with us, all its habits have long been known. cannot but think, however, that sufficient justice has been done to its song. Some authors even seem to be rant of the fact that it has a song at all, only giving it for its rather harsh, but characteristic spring note. It however, a true sylvicoline warble, which is suficie! pleasant in itself, but derives additional interest from being heard late in summer, long after all other birds, the vireos, have ceased to sing. During the latter pa July, and all through August, the yellow warbler may heard singing in the early morning, or in the twiligh his sweet, liquid notes, pleasing as they always wi which were scarcely noticed at all in May and Ju F concert of finer and louder voices, now sound doubly amid the silence that reigns among the feathered chion The Black-throated Blue Warbler (D. Canadensis) * about the first week in May, and takes up his quarters low and swampy woodlands, where he finds his THE WARBLERS. 173 abundant. The females arrive some time after their mates, and stay later; indeed, this seems to be the case with all the warblers. They stay during the whole month, remaining longer than almost any other species. On their first appear- ance they have no note but a simple chirp, but just before they leave us, the males have a singular drawling song of four or five notes. They pass here again in the fall on their southern migration about the first of October, and are both at this time and in the spring quite abundant. The Black-throated Green Warbler (D. virens). This species, rarer than the former, though still not at all scarce, arrives about the same time. It far excels the former species in its song, which is varied, sweet, and not inferior to that of any of the Sylvicolew. In autumn, they come down to us from the north along with the black-throated blue warblers, or else a little earlier, and, after remaining a short time,.move off to the south. The Chestnut-sided Warbler (D. Pennsylvanica) is one of the most beautiful members of its class. It was, if we may trust the accounts given to us by Audubon and Wilson, a rare species fifty years ago; now, however, it is one of our commonest warblers. In some seasons it is excessively abundant, at others not as much so; but it is never very Scarce. Its stay with us in the spring is usually very short, the main body not remaining more than two or three days. While on its spring visit it has, occasionally, a very pleasant Song, which it utters at short intervals, in the early morn- Somewhat resembling the chestnut-sided warbler in its coloring, but very different in its habits, is the Bay-breasted Warbler (D. castanea). It is one of the last to arrive, and, owing to the fact that by that time the foliage is pretty dense, and that it makes but a short stay, it is not very often Seen. It is not quite so active as the other warblers, and Keeps more on the lower boughs, seldom ascending to the tops of the trees. Early in the fall, about the middle of 174 THE WARBLERS. warblers in large companies, haunts the groves and woos, being now more familiar than in the spring, and far more abundant. The young are totally different in their color from the adults, and so closely resemble the young of the black-polled warbler, that it is often very difficult to disti guish them apart. I have never heard their spring love notes ; in fall, they have a faint chirp. 3 The Connecticut Warbler ( Oporornis agilis) is one of scarcest of the family. There are some peculiarities abott the habits of this bird that deserve attention. Although et- cessively rare in spring, perhaps more so than any La species, it is, in autumn, quite often seen, at least in w locality. It has never been my fortune to meet with g spring, though I have seen many in the fall; judging #0 analogy, it must pass through the Middle States along a the mourning warbler toward the latter part of May, © beginning of June. It returns late in September, and Te mains but a short time. Of its habits and notes Í knot | nothing, except that in autumn it frequents low, swamps, such as the Maryland yellow-throat chooses for home, and utters, at times, a feeble chirp. Why it $ , be so exceedingly rare in spring, while in the fall comparatively common, I can scarcely even conjectit® l perhaps it may choose a different route for its nort migration from what it pursues on its southern. The circumstance may be noticed in the migrations of many species, though in a much less marked degree. The Blue-winged Yellow Warbler ( Helminthoph nus) is one of that subdivision of the warbler family the “W orm-eaters,” or, in scientific language, Verm The members of this division are distinguished fron typical warblers by sharper and more pointed l plainer colors, and, as a rule, by comparatively harsh | unmusical voices. Their habits partake more of | Vs character than the others; in fact, they bear nearly the’ September, it returns, and, associated with the black-polled ia a ee ae ee THE WARBLERS. 175 relation to the Vireonide, that the Myiodiocte, of which the green black-capped warbler is a member, do to the Musci- capide, or Flycatchers. The blue-winged yellow warbler is one of those that spend the summer with us; but though it is quite abundant during that season, I have never been for- tunate enough to discover its nest, although I have repeat- edly seen the young just fledged. It arrives about the tenth of May, and takes up its abode in the closest thickets and underbrush. Its note is very forcible and characteristic ; ‘once heard, it will always be remembered. It is a rapid chirrup, nearly undescribable in words, though the follow- ing syllables bear some resemblance to it, chaachich-k'-a-re- r'r'r'r!, uttered very quickly. It leaves in August. The Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis Philadelphia) is a very rare species, scarcely less so than the Connecticut war- bler. It arrives late in spring, about the twenty-fifth of May, or first of J une; of its notes and habits I know noth- ing, having only seen one or two individuals. This and the Connecticut warbler have been considered by some orni- thologists to be identical, but they are undoubtedly perfectly istinct. One of the rarest of all is the Cape May Warbler (D. tigrina). Like the preceding, it is a late comer, arriving generally toward the end of May, and staying a very brief period. In the autumn it passes here, on its southward course, about the twentieth of September. Of its notes I know nothing, except that it has a faint chirp like all sthe other warblers; and of its habits, nothing worthy of par- ticular notice, except that it shows a preference to cedar, and other evergreen trees. The Green Black-capped Warbler (Mzyiodioctes pusillus) 's one of those belonging to the section or genus intermediate between the warblers and flycatchers. It is very much nearer the former, however, than the latter; and itis a matter of some little surprise, how it could have been ranked odie flycatcher. Audubon says that it passes through the Middle 176 THE WARBLERS. States very quickly on its way northward; but I have seen it from the nineteenth to the thirtieth of May, though never in abundance. It keeps low down in the trees, and is fond | of haunting thickets and open brush-fields. Its ordinary | note is a sharp chirp, but occasionally it may be heard to utter a loud, rapid, chattering song, which it repeats at short intervals. It is dintinmiichad by its activity, even ane class of birds preéminent for that quality. The Canada Warbler (Myiodtoctes Canadensis) belas classed as a flycatcher. It arrives about the middle of May along with the greater mass of warblers, and remains till the first of June. It is very unsuspicious, and more familiar in its habits than most of the warblers. With me, during some seasons, it is exceedingly abundant; at others it is scare though never rare. It affects the lower branches principally, and is always very active. Its song is one of the mos agreeable which we hear, though anio tunately it is s heard in this part of the country. E The Blue Warbler (D. cærulea), is a very rare species; that is to say, in the New England and Northern States, its natural home being the south and the south- where it is extremely abundant: It very rarely reac New England States, though in the southern parts of sylvania and New Jersey it sometimes occurs in consid numbers. Ina “Catalogue of birds observed in New Long and Staten Islands, and the adjacent parts. je Jersey,” by Geo. N. Lawrence, no mention of it is 1 although the list is very full and complete, embracing " CREPE not before known to occur in those lool viii indeed, I at first slate it. It had no note of any Ki The Maryland Yellow-throat ( Geothlypis ne to the Geothlypee, or Ground Warblers, so named THE WARBLERS. 177 they show a marked preference for the ground, seldom ascending to the tops of the trees as the others do, but being always found in the low thickets and bushes, or even on the ground. The present species is, perhaps, the best known, and most familiar of all its tribe; indeed it could not have otherwise obtained its familiar name of “Yellow- throat.” It is scarcely necessary to add anything concerning it; suffice it to say, that it holds a most important position in the woodland choir; there is scarcely another bird that we should miss more. Without-it, the thickets and coppices would seem almost uninhabited ; and its song, simple though it is, would be sadly missed in August, when the hot sum- mer sun has silenced the wood-thrush and the veery. The Nashville Warbler (Helminthophaga ruficapilla) is, in this vicinity, quite an abundant species. It arrives about the twentieth of May, and, after staying a very short period, proceeds northward. During its stay it is shy and retiring, frequenting the tops of forest trees; occasionally it may be seen in orchards, and in the trees lining the brooks and swamps. It returns about the last week in September, remains a few days, and then moves off to the south. It has quite a fine song, which resembles that of the yellow Warbler more nearly than any other. Many of the warblers have songs, so closely resembling each other, that it is impossible to describe them accurately in words, though they can at once be distinguished in the woods by the practised ornithologist. The Blue Yellow-backed Warbler (Parula Americana) is one of the smallest, as well as one of the most beautiful of all. Usually very abundant, it is sometimes rather scarce, - 4nd its migrations seem to be somewhat irregular. It arrives in the second week in May, and remains a considerable time With us. About the time the apple and pear trees are in bloom, it is most abundant; and any one visiting orchards then, is sure to see it flitting among the blossoms like a winged gem, the dark blue and gold of the bird contrasting AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 23 178 THE WARBLERS. beautifully with the pure white, or delicate pink, of the f flowers. In autumn, it is one of the first, if not the first, t leave its northern abode and pass through the Midi | States, appearing in my locality about the second or thini | week of September. After haunting, for a few weeks, the. white-birch swamps, it moves southward, just as the black throated blue warbler is arriving. The song of the blue ye low-back is a little sharp and lisping, yet quite varied, anl very pleasant to be heard. E- The Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitherus vermivorus) i one of the very few warblers that are plainly attired, yet evel it can make some pretensions to personal beauty ; for it four bands of jet-black on its head, and a dainty suit of light buff on its back. It is not at all common, arrives in D middle of May, and has at that time a rapid, chattering nk It always keeps near the ground, is fond of rustling amott the dead leaves of a broken bough, and, besides its chattet ing song, has, in June, a series of odd notes much like tut of the white-breasted nuthatch, but more varied and music though hardly entitled to be called a song. It remains j us during the summer, and although I have seen it a the breeding season evidently collecting food for its your have never been able to find its nest. . : p The Hooded Warbler (Myiodioctes mitratus), is selit seen as far north as the neighborhood of New York; England it is very rare. I have only observed two oF om individuals ; these were in low bushes, and seemed we larly active and restless. They are said to have a lively : of warble, though I have never heard their notes. a the Prairie Warbler (D. discolor) I know but It is said to be abundant in many parts of New Jone Long Island, and to breed in those sections. It ariv® the neighborhood of New York in the first week in May remains till the autumn, frequenting, in spring, the Y and gardens, and, in summer, the open, deserted fields pastures. It has quite a variety of notes, some of which’ very pleasing. THE WARBLERS. 179 The Black-polled Warbler (D. striata), is the last of the tribe to arrive in spring, seldom appearing before the twen- tieth of May. It is a familiar species, being found, while with us, in gardens, orchards, and in the vicinity of houses, as well as in the woods. It is extremely active, and, when seen, is always darting in and out among the branches, so rapidly as almost to