sue experiment further, and with the able assistance of Mr. Joseph Zentmayer, whose zeal for the improvement of the microscope has induced him to undertake the rather troublesome task of preparing the prisms, it will soon be ascertained whether or not any material advantage can be gained, by adopting a different plan of cutting them.

NOTES.

Our readers are doubtless aware that Congress at the last session made an appropriation of $50,000 for Arctic exploration, with the promise that the scientific operations of the expedition were to be prescribed by the National Academy of Sciences. Captain Hall was appointed by the President of the United States to command the expedition in question, and a commission of the National Academy, recommended by Professor Henry are to act in concert with him, and prepare a manual of scientific inquiry for the use of the expedition, which will, undoubtedly, interest a large circle of readers when published.

Mr. A. Hyatt has been appointed Professor of Palæontology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. E. S. Morse has been chosen Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology at Bowdoin College, and has been appointed Lecturer in the same branch at the Maine Agricultural College. Dr. A. S. Packard, jr., is to lecture on Economic Entomology at the same institution. Mr. B. K. Emerson has recently been elected Professor of Geology at Amherst College, the chair filled for so many years by Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Senior.

the

Chicago offers a new publication for general patronage, under the title of "American Journal of Microscopy." The first number, for November, is of quarto size and contains sixteen pages. The Journal is to be published monthly, by GEORGE MEAD & CO., 182 South Clark Street, Chicago. Mr. Mead is the editor. Subscriptions at $1.00 a year are solicited, and contributions on microscopical and kindred subjects are requested from all parts of the world.

Dr. Hagen has recently returned from Europe, having purchased, through funds furnished by a lady in Boston, for the Cambridge Museum, a Parisian collection of weevils of great extent and value. We are glad to know that he has brought over his own unrivalled collection of Neuroptera. Its presence in this country is most fortunate for this department of entomology.

The addition to the building for the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, at an expense of upwards of $60,000, is rapidly going up. Professor Agassiz has returned to Cambridge with restored health, and with new plans for the enlargement of his Museum.

The Lyceum of Natural History of New York has lately started forwards with renewed vigor, and now issues its "Proceedings," as well as "Annals." Three signatures of the "Proceedings" (from pages 1 to 44), have been received, and contain abstracts of several interesting papers read at the meetings in April and May last.

Gradually the unpublished results of the labors of Dr. T. W. Harris are being given to the public. Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, has ready for publication by the Boston Society of Natural History, descriptions of the Hemiptera of the Harris Entomological collection.

. Congress is about to print an entomological report by Townend Glover, the entomologist of the Agricultural Department. It will form an exceedingly useful work, and will deserve the widest circulation.

The well-known Paris dealer in insects, M. Deyrolle, took flight to London with his immense stock of insects, before Paris was actually invested.

Mr. J. A. McNiel, who has made two expeditions to Central America, is now in Philadelphia preparing for a third Archæological Excursion to Nicaragua.

Prof. O. C. Marsh of Yale College, has just returned, with his party, from the Rocky Mountains. The Expedition started in June last. All our French exchanges, months ago, were suspended.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A. D. H., Tuscaloosa, Ala.-The larva taken from oak wood is the Oak-tree Borer (Xyleutes robinia), one of the silk worm family (Bombycida). It often does damage to the red oak, though the moth, a large ash gray species, is comparatively rare.

C. E.. Cincinnati.-A light dredge, such as is described on p. 269 and figured on p. 274, Vol. iii. of the Naturalist, will answer your purpose. A stout clothes line will do for a rope; with a five-pound window weight or fishing lead to sink the dredge. In sounding, use a stout fishing line, with a hollowed two-pound lead weight tied to the end, the hollow to be filled with soap. Fathoms can be measured off with strips of red tape tied in the cord. Look out for minute worms and small crustacea, such as the water fleas, and especially the larger shelled forms, such as Lymnadia, Estherea, etc. E. S. M., Mitchell, Ind. Your photograph is that of Dynastes Tityus, male. A pair would be very desirable for the Museum of the Academy.

H. G., Detroit. - We requested an answer to your question from a physiologist of the highest standing, and have received the following in reply: "The subject is a very important one, as experts are often called upon to decide whether a given blood-stain is or is not human. Many enthusiastic microscopists have full confidence that nothing is easier than to decide the matter by looking through their instruments, until they find themselves cross-questioned by a sharp lawyer.

Human blood is easily distinguished from that of many mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes, by the size and form of the globules; and tests, both chemical and microscopical, have been proposed for distinguishing human blood from that of some of the domesticated animals. In medico-legal cases, such, if good, would be of the utmost importance, but it is generally conceded that none exist which can be admitted as absolute. If an observer had given him blood from man and the dog, without knowing any circumstance which would lead to an opinion as to their origin, there is no valid sign which would justify him in going into court and saying which was and which was not human. The test of odor given off when sulphuric acid is added to the blood. nowever successful it may have once been in the hands of some exper's, has not, after many years, come into use, and that of the size and appearance of the globules alse fails, as the globules of some of the domesticated animals offer the same character istics as those of man."

ON the twenty-ninth of August, while hunting spiders among the rocks on the hill north of Bartholomew's pond in South Danvers, Mass., I unexpectedly found the pit of an ant-lion (Myrmeleo immaculatus De Geer), in a clear space under the shade of a large boulder. The pit (Fig. 160) was about two inches in diameter and one deep. The insect himself was hid at the bottom, but when I dropped bits of earth into the hole he showed his position by throwing up sand. I then dug him out and took him home with me, where I put him into a bowl of dry, coarse sand, such as is used by masons for mortar. He remained buried for several days, but finally came to the surface, dug his pitfall, and gave me

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV.

89

(705)

an opportunity of observing his habits. Fig. 161 represents the ant-lion at this time, showing the under side with the feet in a natural position. At first he was so timid that as soon as any one approached he stopped where he was and remained motionless until left alone. stroyed he dug a new one; but during all the time I kept

If his pitfall was de

him I never saw

the whole process of digging it.

When taken out of the sand and laid on the

surface he would keep quite still for a few mo

Fig. 162.

ments, then retreat backward, by jerks, under the sand. He never moved forward but always backward by the contractions of his abdomen as much as by his feet, making a furrow through the sand. He seldom travelled an inch in one direction, and often made a complete circle in that distance. I think he commenced his pitfall by making a circle of this kind, and afterward throwing out the sand from the centre. In digging he used his flat head and jaws, which were pushed under several grains of sand and then jerked upward, throwing their load sometimes as far as six inches, and always far enough to avoid leaving a ridge around the pitfall. When the pit was finished he was entirely concealed beneath it, as in Fig. 160, except his jaws, which were spread apart horizontally at the bottom. The surface of the pit being as steep as the sand could be piled up was very easily disturbed, and when an insect ventured over the edge the ant-lion was apprised of it at once by the falling sand. He immediately began to throw up sand from the bottom, deepening the pit and so causing the sand to slip down from the sides and the insect

with it. The ant-lion seized it with his long jaws and held it up above his head until he had sucked all he wanted from it, when he threw the remainder out of the hole and repaired the trap. Fig. 162 (from Westwood), shows the structure of the jaws, and how the ant-lion may drink the juices from an insect without bringing it to his mouth. On the under side of each jaw (a), is a groove (b), extending from one end to the other, and partly filled by the slender maxilla which lies in it, forming a tube, one end of which passes into the insect which is bitten, while the other opens near the mouth of the ant-lion. After eating he became more timid, and sometimes would not take a second insect. If, however, several were put into the pit at once, he would bite one after the other until all were killed, before deciding on which to begin. I fed him two or three times a week, usually with house-flies, cutting their wings off and letting him take them in his own way. In October, having occasion to travel some distance, I put him in an ounce bottle half filled with sand, corked him up, and carried him with me in my bag. In about a week I gave him a large house-fly, which he did not catch, not having room enough in the bottle to make a pitfall. I gave him no more food till the next March. Meanwhile he remained for several months on a shelf in my room. Occasionally I tipped him out and always found him lively enough to right himself if turned on his back, and to retreat under the nearest sand. In January he was packed up in my trunk for more than a week, and when I opened it, after it had remained several days in a warm room, I found him as lively as when first caught. He afterwards became quite torpid again in a cold closet, where he remained through the rest of the winter. About the first of March, when flies began to be plenty, I commenced to feed him again. He found it rather awkward to catch insects in the bottle as there was not room enough to make a pitfall, and his inability to move forward made it hard for him to seize an insect unless he met it directly between his jaws.