This bird is very rare on the great lakes, and the individual in question, which was of the male sex, was of unusually large size. It weighed thirty-three pounds, and the expanded wings measured in full one hundred and eight inches! The bill from the eye was sixteen inches in length, being of a dirty yellow or yellowish brown. The plumage was almost pure white, with the exception of the alula, primary coverts, and primaries, which were black, as usual. The long feathers on the breast and those of the crest were of a very pale yellow tint. I also noticed, what I have seen no mention of in the description of this species, that over each eye was a group of small feathers of a brownish black color, and of more than an inch in length, almost simulating an eyebrow; a few feathers of a similar or lighter hue being scattered towards the back of the head. The plumage exhibited nothing of the roseate tinge which this species is described as having at the season of reproduction.

In Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence's "Birds of North America," this pelican is mentioned as breeding "in the fur countries, generally selecting inaccessible places in the neighborhood of water falls;" and as being found "throughout the United States, rare on the coasts of the Northern and Middle States;" and as also inhabiting "throughout the Rocky Mountains and California." The same work gives the stretch of wings as seventy inches, and length of bill 13.50, while much smaller specimens are recorded. Mr. James Hobson, who mounted our specimen, and who is of much experience in this direction, having received several of this species from Florida and elsewhere, says he never before saw so large a pelican; all others he had seen being insignificant in comparison. During a residence of over twenty years in the region of the great lakes, I had not previously met with the pelican, nor had I heard of more than three instances of its having been captured within their limits.

The marsh at Sarnia is an inlet or overflow of the river St. Clair, near its head, and about one mile from the south shore of Lake Huron. The pelican was feeding in the marsh, and had been there two days, having arrived on the evening of the 13th of June. When first seen it was flying from the northward, from the direction of the lake. On the morning of the 14th it flew back to Lake Huron, but returned in the evening of the same day, remaining till shot on the following evening, as before stated. It was very active, wandering over the marsh all day, swimming about, or only rising for a short flight, and alighting again in the water. Strange to say there were no fish found in its pouch; only a few small worms and insects. HENRY GILLMAN, Detroit, Michigan.

MIGRATION OF HAWKS. - Do hawks migrate in pairs only, or do they migrate in flocks and separate into pairs as they arrive at their breeding places? In 1856 my attention was called to quite a number of hawks that were diving, and screaming, and going through various gyrations high in the air (as they commonly do in the spring when pairing) and passing to the north-east. Not making any note of the occurrence I cannot give the exact number or date. It was early in the spring, and there must have

been twenty or more. Early in April, 1860, I witnessed a similar migration when the number in sight at one time was about fifty. A friend of mine in an adjoining town, who is a very careful and accurate observer, asked me a short time since if I ever saw a flock of hawks? He said that early this spring (1870), about the last of March or the first of April when passing over his farm with his two sons, his attention was attracted by the screaming of hawks, and on looking up the air seemed to be filled with them. They attempted to count them, but found it somewhat difficult to be perfectly accurate, as the birds were constantly in motion, diving and screaming and passing northward, yet they counted seventythree in sight at one time. In both of the flights which I witnessed, and also in that seen by Mr. S. and his sons, the hawks were not in flocks according to the common acceptation of the word flock, but were in pairs, or groups of about four usually, all passing in the same direction, northward. Having never read in our works on natural history, of such numbers passing at one time, I give these facts, hoping to call the attention of our ornithologists to them, and draw out from them any observations which they have made on the subject. - WM. WOOD, M. D., East Windsor Hill, Connecticut.

Illness in my

SCUDDER'S WORK ON NEW ENGLAND BUTTERFLIES. family has thus far prevented my completing the work on New England Butterflies announced some time since in these columns. This delay has, however, enabled me to extend the original plan of the book much more fully than was anticipated.

I gladly take this opportunity of thanking my many friends and correspondents for the cordiality with which they have seconded my undertaking, in furnishing me with innumerable notes upon the times of appearance and prevalence of different butterflies in their respective localities. When it is known that such memoranda have already been received from ninety different persons, covering a period of observation of from one to ten years, and, in the case of some butterflies, including as many as one hundred and fifty or two hundred notes for a single species, it is not too much to say that we shall arrive at a degree of exactitude upon the history, seasons, and geographical distribution of our butterflies, which we have not hitherto enjoyed.

In the hope of gaining still further knowledge on these points, I should be pleased to receive notes made by any observers during the season of 1870; descriptions of habits, modes of flight and of posture would be most welcome; and since the result of inquiries has proved the necessity of incorporating in a work on the butterflies of New England and vicinity many forms not mentioned in previous lists of New England species, I beg all persons interested to send me the fullest possible notes, as well as examples of the early stages of the following species (most of these have seldom or never been known to occur in New England; where the names are italicized, specimens of the imago are desired for examination): Papilio Marcellus, Pieris Virginiensis, P. vernalis, Callidryas Eubule,

Colias Labradorensis, C. Keewaydin, C. Eurytheme, Terias Lisa, Xanthidium Nicippe, Anthocaris Genutia, Nymphidium dorsale, Lycæna violacea, L. Pembina, L. Scudderii, Thecla Ontario, T. Clothilde, Euptoieta Claudia, Melitæa Batesii, Apatura Clyton, Grapta Dryas, G. Fabricii, G. interrogationis, Libythea Bachmanii, Satyrus areolatus, Chionobas Jutta, Nisoniades Lucilius, N. Horatius, N. Virgilius, N. Martialis, N. Icelus, Eudamus Bathyllus (not Pylades) E. Olynthus, Hesperia Oileus, H. Wingina, H. vialis, H. Monoco, H. Hianna, H. Mesapano, H. Delaware, H. Phylæus, H. Wyandot, and H. Huron.

Persons possessing from their collections and memoranda any precise data, however meagre, for determining the respective times of appearance of the different species of Grapta and Nisoniades, as recently distinguished in the Transactions of the American Entomological Society and the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, will confer a special favor, by communicating them; many of those already received have lost much of their value from the confusion of the species. Due credit will be given in every instance.

Letters, memoranda and specimens, sent to my address at the Society of Natural History, Berkeley Street, Boston, before March 4th, 1871, will be forwarded thence to me in season for incorporation in my book. The manuscript will soon be completed. It will form an imperial octavo of from four to five hundred pages, and be illustrated by chromolithographic plates in a style which, judging from specimens prepared, has never yet been equalled, even in Europe. - SAMUEL H. SCUDDER.

CALLIDRYAS EUBULE Linn.-This large Pierian butterfly was taken by me at New Bedford, Mass., Aug., 31st. Mr. Sanborn, who has seen the specimen, speaks of it as the first one of the kind observed in New England, or at least in Massachusetts. H. W. PARKER.

[Mr. S. I. Smith informs us that he has taken this insect abundantly at Fire Island, Long Island, N. Y., during the past summer.] - EDS.

MEPHITIS BICOLOR. Since my note in the August NATURALIST was written, on the occurrence of this species in Iowa, I have obtained another skin in Grinnell, Iowa, and still another in Des Moines, from a dealer in pelts, who informs me that he bought at least fifty skins of the kind last winter, procured in that vicinity. There is reason to believe that the species may be found even in central New York. Dr. S. J. Parker, of Ithaca, N. Y., has twice seen by the roadside, in that region, a small, many-striped skunk, very different from the common one.-H. W. PARKER.

WOODCOCK AND MOLES. The Shrew Mole (Scalops Canadensis) has been somewhat abundant for a few years past in Essex county, Massachusetts. These animals are found in low moist lands, though not unfrequently in highly cultivated gardens. The shrew mole is seldom seen above ground, but burrows with celerity below its surface.

The Star-nosed Mole frequents the same moist places, where, like the AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 96

shrew mole, it finds its favorite food, such as earth-worms, grubs, etc. In procuring its food it makes extensive and numerous burrows, above which mounds of loose dirt are thrown to the surface of the land, which destroy the smooth and even surface of the meadow and make it look unsightly and difficult to cultivate.

Now there is a beautiful bird designed by nature to prevent the increase of these noxious animals from becoming excessive in places frequented by the mole. It is the woodcock (Scolopax minor), whose death is delayed until the 15th of August by a law of the State, after which time there will probably be a general attack made upon them with the gun.

It is observable what a difference there is in the appearance, in some localities, occupied by the above mentioned animals. A friend told me a few days since that it was difficult to mow a piece of his land last year on account of the many piles of earth thrown up by the moles. This year the surface of his land is smooth, and I have passed several times this summer by the place and have frequently heard, or flushed the woodcock feeding there in the dusk of evening. - AUGUSTUS FOWLER, Danvers, August 14, 1870.

TURKEY BUZZARD.· On page 375, current volume, J. L. B., in a paragraph on this bird, inquires "Can a Turkey Buzzard be deceived by his sense of smell? Did the Buzzard mistake the skunks' smell for putrefaction?" Two propositions are here answered as undeniable. First, that the Turkey Buzzard selects its food by the sense of smell; and second, that it prefers putrefied food. It seems to me that the exhaustive experiments by Mr. Audubon and Dr. Bachman, made nearly forty years since, as related by the former in his "Ornithological Biography,” Vol. ii, page 33, should settle these questions. I think, then, that it may be safely assumed that both the Turkey Buzzard (Cathartes aura) and the Black Vulture (Cathartes Jova) are practically incapable of distinguishing odors, and select their food by the sense of sight alone; and also that they feed upon fresh, as readily as upon putrid, flesh. As the old error on this subject seems to be perpetuated no doubt to a considerable extent, and as that great work is rare, at least in private libraries, might not the whole, or at least a part of the paper to which I have referred, prove interesting to your readers? -J. D. CATON, Ottawa, Illinois, Aug. 22, 1870.

SPIKE HORNED BUCKS. - Mr. H. H. Bromley, proprietor of the Chasm House near Keeseville, has given me an account of the spike horns that is confirmatory of "Adirondack's" statements, and also shows that the variety extends farther south in the Adirondack region than heretofore stated.

Mr. Bromley was for six years the landlord of the Hotel at Franklin Falls, located on the Saranac River, about thirty miles southeast of Lewis Lake and the region mentioned by "Adirondack." When he first went into this region, eight years ago, he was told about the spike horned bucks which were then common and well known to all the hunters and trappers in the Saranac region. During his residence at Franklin Falls,

he shot several spike horns, and one at least was a large buck of four years if not of five, and was so considered by several old hunters. In this specimen one of the horns was slightly forked at the end, but the other was a simple slightly curved spike. Mr. Bromley says that any old hunter of the Saranac region would laugh at the idea of all the spike horns being young bucks of two or three years, and he states that they can be recognized by their shorter legs, as well as by their spike horns. Mr. Bromley thinks that the spike horns have increased in numbers · over the branched horns, and that in spite of the extensive hunting are about as abundant as when he first went into the woods. -F. W. P.

DEER'S HORNS. It is a well known fact that the horns of deer are but very seldom found in the woods, even in districts where the deer are very plenty. Several ways of accounting for their disappearance have been suggested, but the cause that seems to be the best substantiated is that of their being eaten by the various species of rodents seeking their food under the snow in early spring. In confirmation of this theory Mr. H. H. Bromley of Keeseville, N. Y., has informed me that he once found a deer's horn in the woods that had been partly gnawed, and had been nearly eaten through in two places by mice. -F. W. P.

SINGULAR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HORNBILLS DURING THE BREEDING SEASON. - No sooner has the hen commenced the labor of incubation, say several trustworthy observers on this subject, than the male walls up the hole in the hollow tree in which the hen is sitting on her eggs, until there is only room for the point of her bill to protrude, so that until her young birds are hatched she remains confined to her nest, and is in the meantime assiduously fed by her mate, who devotes himself entirely to this object. This habit has been testified to not only by Tickell, Layard, and other Indian naturalists concerning some of the Asiatic species, but is also spoken of by Dr. Livingstone in the case of hornbills met with during his African explorations, and there appears to be no doubt of its authenticity. In Sumatra, in 1862, Mr. Wallace heard the same story from his hunters, and was taken to see a nest of the concavecasqued hornbill, in which, after the male bird had been shot while in the act of feeding its mate, the female was discovered walled up. "With great difficulty," Mr. Wallace tells us, "I persuaded some natives to climb up the tree, and bring me the bird. This they did, alive, and along with it a young one, apparently not many days old, and a most remarkable object. It was about the size of a half-grown duckling, but so flabby and semi-transparent as to resemble a bladder of jelly, furnished with head, legs, and rudimentary wings, but with not a sign of a feather, except a few lines of points indicating where they would come.". Nature.

GEOLOGY.

THE MEGATHERIUM AND ITS ALLIES.—The law of adherence to type, or pattern, in the skeletons of the Megatherium, Megalonyx and Mylodon, extinct animals of the sloth tribe, appears to be illustrated in a remarkable manner in the following particulars :