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582 General Notes. [September,

west of the 105 th degree of west longitude, and south of the 40th

parallel. In the Botanical Gazette for July, Mary C. Reynolds

notices at length certain Floridian ferns. E. T. Smith notices a
new form of Trillium grandiflorum from Michigan. A writer
over the initials C. R. B. calls attention to the neglected botany

of West Virginia. Fritz Muller questions, in Nature, whether

many of the varieties of bananas have not been produced by bud-
variation. In the Mittheilnngen of the Natural History Society

of Bern, Herr Frankhauser contributes a paper on the most
important conditions of shape in the leaf of phanerogamic plants,
and a second one on the principal laws of growth in Floridea^,

and Dr. Pertz notices some luminous bacteria. In an important

memoir on the ovule of plants, Prof. Warming discusses the early
development of the leaf or " ovular mamelon," the genesis of the
nucleus and the formation of the integuments of the mamelon.
According to a reviewer in Nature he demonstrates that the
theory of Brogniart as to the morphological significance of the
ovule is the true and solely admissible one, and he reasons very
conclusively against the views of Bronn, Eichler and Strasburger,
who would regard the ovule as a bud, while in reality, as he says,

" the ovule is the homologue of a sporangium." Mr. L. Les-

quereux contributes an article on Cordaites bearing fruit (with a
plate) to the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

ZOOLOGY. 1

Does the Fox Snake "Mimic" the Rattlesnake? — On
May 24th a fact came under my observation which until then
was unknown to me ; it may, however, not be new to other
readers of the Naturalist.

While examining an exposure of lower magnesian limestone
in the glen at the junction mill, my attention was called to a large
spotted snake lying upon the stump of a fallen tree, where it was
stretched at full length basking in the sun over the stream. Be-
fore I could reach the spot the snake had apparently suspected
danger and had retreated to a clump of grass near the foot of a
tree where, by diligent search, it was at last discovered. Desiring
to obtain the specimen alive, if possible, I placed my foot upon
the body of the snake near the middle, when, to my surprise,
there followed a buzzing sound that caused me to spring back-
ward, thinking I had encountered a rattlesnake.

A blow from a stick disabled the snake but did not stop the
buzzing sound, which was repeated several times, and the motion
of the tail was distinctly observed by myself and my friend, Mr.
F. F. Watson. The terminal inch and a half of the tail alone
participated in the vibration, and was thrown rapidly from side to

'The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. Elliott
Coues, U. S. A.

1879.] Zoology. 583

side over an arc of about three-fourths of an inch, moving so
rapidly as to appear like a dull fan-like glimmer. In every
instance observed the tail was raised but little above the horizon-
tal, and the buzzing sound was continuous through a few seconds
only.

Is 'this to be called an example of " mimicry " ? May it be
said that far back in the past some sagacious ancestor witnessing
that act of intimidation on the part of the rattlesnake, and
observing how successful it was, resolved to adopt the practice
itself; and thus, through inheritance, the practice became en-
grafted upon this species ? If so, that ancestor, it would seem,
must have possessed a keenness of perception, an accuracy of
judgment and a depth of reasoning human-like in a high degree,
and far above what is usually recognized among the members of
its class.

If the fact under consideration is not an example of" mimicry,"
may it be said that some ancestor in one of its battles accidentally
moved its tail from side to side so rapidly as to produce a strange
buzzing sound that frightened its antagonist away ; that that
snake possessed the sagacity to connect the flight of its enemy
and the buzzing sound with the rapid motions of its tail ; and
that by continued repetition of this feat in subsequent battles,
there were wrought structural and mental changes sufficiently
fixed to be inherited ?

If all this be granted, and it is very unsatisfactory reasoning to
me, we have possibly a clew to the beginning of differentiation in
the tail of the rattlesnake.

There can be but little doubt but that the specimen under con-
sideration is the fox snake, Colztber vulpinus, although I have at
hand only the abbreviated description found in Jordan's " Manual
of Vertebrate Animals." — F. H. King, River Falls, Wis., May 26,
1879.

Breeding of Land-locked Salmon. — Land-locked salmon, in
the Schoodic waters (Maine) are occasionally found filled with ripe
spawn in the spring. This seems a curious circumstance in fish
which normally spawn in the autumn months, and perhaps may
be considered a case of retarded development. In our own
experience we have never seen melt in the male fish at this out-
of-season, and it would seem as if it but needed the concurrence
of retardation in the two sexes, and their coming together, in
order to change the breeding habits of the species. What is
curious, if a general fact, the instinct of propagation in these
untimely fish seems inferior to that instinct which governs their
habits of life. Normally, during the breeding season, these sal-
mon seek the rapid streams, but these spring fish, filled with
spawn, are found in the waters of the lake along with others of
their species. In order to give directness to this statement we
would state that, for one instance, on June 2d we took from the

584 General Notes. [September,

lake a large healthy fish which extruded into the boat apparently
healthy eggs as large as peas, and more were afterwards forced
out in abundance by gentle pressure. In the young fry from last
year's hatching, the yolk sac was scarcely absorbed at this time. —
E. Lewis Sturtevant, M. D., S. Framingham, Mass.

Notes on American Crustacea. — Having recently been study-
ing the Crustaceans belonging to Union College, kindly loaned
me by Prof. H. E. Webster, I have thought best to place on
record some of the more noticeable features of the collections.
I hope, however, at an early day to publish a more extended
notice. Enough specimens were found to show the identity of
Otlionia anisodon with 0. acidiata (Gibbes) Stm. A new species
of Actcza (A. spiniferd) occurred from Plantation Key, Fla. This
species closely resembles A. hirsntissima (Ruppell) Dana, from
the Indian ocean and the Red sea, and differs from all other
American species in the character of the antero-lateral teeth,
which closely resembles those of A. hirsntissima. Prof. Webster
collected specimens of Panopens of the two forms described as
sayi and texanus, but I can find no constant character to separate
them ; the coloration of the hand and presence or absence of the
sub-hepatic tubercle certainly are not sufficient characters. A
comparison of the young of Hepatus decorus with H. tubercidatus
Saussure, as suggested by Stimpson, reveals the fact that the two
species are distinct. A new species of Lithadia (L. lacnnosd),
allied to L. cariosa, was found at Sarasota bay, Florida. It differs,
however, from that species in the ornamentation of the carapace,
which is covered with circular depressions like those on a lady's
thimble. Among the Anomura were specimens from North
Carolina and Florida of the curious Euceramus prcelongus Stm.,
which resembles a Hippa in form, but is allied by its structure to
the porcelain crabs. A new species of Pisosoma (P. glabra) comes
from Key West. It differs from P. ri'isei in the simple not bimar-
ginate front. Poly onyx macrochelis and Lepidops venusta were
found at Fort Macon, N. C, adding two species to the fauna of
that locality in addition to those mentioned in my list (Proceed-
ings Philadelphia Academy, 1878, pp. 316-330). Among the
Macrura the most noticeable was a species of Ogyris (0. alphce-
rostris) from Northampton county, Virginia (Eastern shore,
Atlantic side.) This species differs from the only other known
one, 0. orientalis, in having a rostrum like that of Alphceus heter-
ochelis, and the absence of a dorsal carina on the carapace. The
eyes are slender and elongate, strikingly like those of Hippa. A
peculiar interest attaches to this and certain other genera of
Crustacea [Tozeuma, Urocaris, Rhynchocyclus and Limulus) from
the fact that the known species inhabit the eastern coasts of the
two continents, while the western shores have no representatives
of these genera. A similar fact in geographical distribution has
been noticed in the flora. Specimens of Alphceus minus, from

1879.] Zoology. 585

Florida, were the largest I have ever seen, one measuring forty-
five millemetres in length. — J. S. Kingsley.

The Belostoma piscivorus. — Having some stickle-backs in a
jar of water I was surprised at finding one or two of them dead,
though hardy. Soon afterwards, however, I saw a large water-
bug (Belostoma) seize one of these fish, pierce it with its strong
beak, and apparently suck the fish's blood. — Henry Turner, Ith-
aca, N. Y.

Early Stages of the Oyster. — Certain of the early stages of
the oyster have been studied in Europe, but a complete history is
much needed. Prof. W. K. Brooks is now engaged on this sub-
ject at Crisfield, Maryland, where he has established the Summer
Zoological Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University in con-
nection with the U. S. Fish Commission. He had succeeded
May 20th in artificially fertilizing the eggs, ascertaining that the
process of segmentation occupied two hours, and that in six
hours free-swimming ciliated embryos are produced.

The Maiod Crabs. 1 — Mr. Miers has given in this paper a
revision of the families, sub-families and genera of this interesting
group of Crustacea. The genera enumerated number 106, and
are placed in four families, Inachidse, Maiidae, Periceridae and
Parthenopidae, founded on characters derived from the orbits and
antennae. The families as given by Dana in the Crustacea of the
U. S. Exploring Expedition, were shown several years ago to be
faulty, and in the present state of our knowledge of this group,
the arrangement proposed is generally good, and will prove indis-
pensable to the student. The pages of the Naturalist are not
the place for an extended examination of this system of classifi-
cation, but it may not be out of place to notice a few of the
points, errors and omissions of the paper. The generic name
Podonema is preoccupied (as Podinema) in the Reptilia, and I
would here propose the name Coryrhynchus in allusion to the
hood-shaped rostrum ; it includes three species from Florida,
riisei, hypoglypha and lamelligera. The genus Oncinopus DeHaan,
for which Dana established a separate group, is assigned to the
neighborhood of Irachus. The placing of Chorinus and Macro-
cheira in the same section hardly seems proper, nor does the
separation of Schizophrys and Cyclax from the neighborhood of
Mithrax and Mithraculus. The placing of Libinia and Cceloce-
rus in different families is, we think, hardly right. A character
separating Mithrax and Mithrachulus which is not noticed in this
paper is that in Mithrax the anterior margin of the meral joint of
the external maxilliped is notched for the reception of the suc-
ceeding joints, while in Mithraculus it is entire. The generic

1 On the Classification of the Maiod Crustacea. By Edward J. MlERS. (Jour-
nal of the Linnaean Society of London— Zoology. Vol. xiv, 1S79.) Pages 634-673,
pis. XII and xm.

5 86 General Notes. [September,

name Microrhyncus is preoccupied, and Alphonse Milne Edwards
has proposed in its stead the name Neorhyncus.

The Rocky Mountain Locust in New Mexico. — During a
recent trip to New Mexico to investigate the southern limits of
the distribution of Caloptenns spretus, I was enabled to ascertain
a number of new facts regarding the extreme southern limits of
this species. According to Ex-governor W. F. Amy, of Santa
Fe, small swarms of destructive locusts, supposed to be this spe-
cies, have appeared at a point 140 miles south of Santa Fe.
Heretofore the U. S. Entomological Commission had been unable
to trace it south of Taos, N. M., where it was known to have
been destructive in 1877. From Ex-governor Amy and several
Mexicans and Pueblo Indians we obtained the following facts,
which are of general interest. In 1868 the counties of Valentia
and Bernalillo were troubled by locusts. They probably, came
from the north-west as they do generally, and without doubt
breed in the eastern portions of Arizona lying west of Valentia
county, N. M. In 1865 they were seen near Santa Fe, and the
wheat crop of the Pueblo Indians of Pojuaque was totally
destroyed by locusts which came from the north-west. In 1868
the same Pueblo was visited late in the season. In 1871 Santa
Fe, and in 1874 Santa Fe and Rio Ariba counties, including
several Pueblo Indian towns, were invaded. In 1873 Colfax county
was visited, and a few appeared the next year. In 1877 Santa
Fe and Taos counties were invaded. The swarms at Santa Fe
came from the west or south-west, in July, and passed up into
Rio Ariba and Taos counties, crossing into Costilla county, Col-
orado. From these facts it seems that the northern half of New
Mexico, and probably Northern Arizona, are occasionally subject
to invasions of locusts from Southern Colorado ; but the flights
are sporadic and local, and occur after the wheat crop has been
mostly harvested. Whether on account of droughts or locusts,
or from both causes, the Pueblo Indians have, like the Egyptians
of old, been in the habit of laying up stores of wheat and corn
two and three years in advance. — A. S. Packard, Jr.

Zoological Notes. — We take the following notes from late
numbers of Nature : Dr. Fritz Miillcr has sent from Brazil a
trichopterous insect belonging to the Leptoceridce, remarkable on
account of its showing, very distinctly, branchia such as have
lately been discovered in the imago state of this group by Dr.

Palmen. M. Jourdain has read a paper before the French

Academy on the respiratory apparatus of Ampullaria, a fresh-
water mollusk. The muscles of crayfish have been studied

from a physiological point of view by M. Richet, the muscles of

the clam have a high degree of contractibility. M. Sorensen,

in his studies on the apparatus of sound in various South Ameri-
can fishes, finds that vibrations are communicated to the air of the

1 879.] Anthropology. 587

swimming bladder.— — The fauna of the Solomon islands has
been discussed by Mr. E. P. Ramsay, several new birds being
described; 120 mammals and about fifty species of insects were
collected for the Australian Museum, of which Mr. Ramsay is

the collector. The fossil head of a Rhinoceros ticorhinus has

been found in Siberia in a good state of preservation. Another

fossil mammoth has been found at Newburgh, N. Y. The

metamorphoses of the cantharides (Lytta vesicatorid) from the

egg has been worked out by M. Lichtenstein, of Paris. The

body-cavity of sedentary Annelids has been studied by M. Cos-
morici, and the anatomy of an Actinia, Ceriantlius membranacens,

has been investigated by Von Heider. The genus Squilla is

now know to date as far back as the London clay, and Mr. Wood-
ward, . the discoverer of the fact, describes Necroscilla zvilsoni, a
supposed stomapod Crustacean from the middle coal measures,
and a fossil king crab (Limtilns) from the cretaceous formation of

the Lebanon. Collections of birds have lately been examined

by London ornithologists, from the Argentine Republic and the
United States of Columbia, the latter collection comprising 3500

specimens, representing 469 species. A collection of land

shells, of which ten or twelve are supposed to be new, collected
by the late Dr. W. M. Gabb, in Costa Rica, has been reported

on by Mr. G. F. Angas. A young hippopotamus has lately

died in captivity of trichinosis. Immense swarms of butterflies

have been witnessed at Le Mail and in Alsace, June 8th and
loth, and June 7th in Zurich.

ANTHROPOLOGY. l

Anthropological News. — The first number of Materianx for
1879 is one of unusual interest to the general reader. On page
22 is a report of a discussion before the Geological Society of
London, on the mammoth in space and time. On page 31 is
given a series of stone implements from Japan. On page 33 M.
Maret presents the results of diggings in the grotto of Placard,
Charent. Figure 18 represents a cresent-shaped implement from
the horn of the reindeer, use undetermined. We beg to suggest
that the object is drawn upside down, and that it resembles very
closely the bone deadeyes used on Eskimo Kyaks for running
lines ; in other words it is the parent of our modern block for
tackle. On page 46 we have the announcement of the meeting
of the Congres international d'Anthropologie et d'Archeologie
prehistorique at Lisbon, in 1880, and the programme of M.
Daly's Course of Ethnology for 1880, at the School of Anthro-
pology in Paris, as follows:

1. Les sciences anthropologiques. Definitions. L'ethnologie
et l'ethnographie. Elements statiques et dynamiques.

Sources de l'ethnologie. Anatomie et physiologie individuelle

1 fedited by Prof. Otis T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C.

VOL. XIII. — NO. IX. 40