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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, Melitaa 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 :

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First. In the great size, weight and solid condition of the bones of the extremities and in their want of medullary cavities.

Second. In the number, arrangement, , mode and unlimited growth of their teeth; in their deep insertion into the jaws; their deeply excavated base; in the structure of their teeth, when viewed as organs, made up of a cylinder of vascular dentine, dentine and cementum, and more particularly in the striking resemblance of their organization when examined under the microscope; that of the Megatherium and Mylodon being precisely the same, with the exception of the looped canals or tubules in the cementum, as figured by Prof. Owen in the article Odontography, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica."

Third. The bones of the skull resemble each other strongly in the great development of the cells of the diploë, which in their general appearance resemble wood eaten through and through by the largest sized worms; and in the shortness of the face. The alveoli of the two jaws correspond in number, position and relative depth, with the exception of Megalonyx, which has its first molar in the upper and lower jaw separated from the other teeth and taking the usual place of the canine or cuspidate teeth.

Fourth. The bones of the chest and trunk have, in general, a strong resemblance in size and form, especially the ribs in size, the scapula in form, the expanded ilia, and the clavicles. The bones of the hand and arm have a marked family likeness — the radius and ulna of Megathere and Megalonyx, the humerus of Megalonyx and Mylodon in particular, and in all the genera in the broad expansion of the external and internal condyles of the humerus for the origin of the supinator and pronator muscles. The differences between these in outline and form from that of Megatherium will be hereafter alluded to.

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Fifth. The number and size of the bones in the tail of Megatherium and Mylodon, and the use to which this appendage is put, appear to be precisely the same, making with the posterior extremities a most stable tripod for the support of these animals while reaching for their food. Sixth. - In the broad and massive femur of the Megatherium and Megalonyx there is a marked resemblance: as figured in Leidy's "Memoir" and in the "Penny Cyclopedia" and "Encyclopædia Britannica," this bone in the Mylodon appears not to be so flattened in front, but this appearance may be only the result of foreshortening in the drawing; judging from a fragment in my possession it does not differ much from the femur in Megathere or Megalonyx. The tibia of Megalonyx bears considerable resemblance in form to that of Mylodon, but it is not united in either of these animals (making as it were one bone) as in Megatherium.

The bones of these extinct animals differ somewhat:

First. In the general outline of the lower jaw of Megatherium, especially that of Meg. Cuvieri from South America; less so, however, in that part where the teeth are implanted in the N. American Megathere, and in its anterior prolongation.

Second. The skulls of Megalonyx and Mylodon, looking at them either from above or below, differ somewhat, especially in their width;

this difference, however, may be the result simply of the displacement forwards of the first molar, as appears to be the case with some varieties of dogs.

Third. — The humerus of the Megatherium differs from that of Megalonyx and Mylodon chiefly in that part from which the brachialis anticus muscle arises. The bone in Megathere at this point, viz., on either side of the insertion of the deltoid, being broad and flat, while, in Megalonyx and Mylodon especially it forms, with a marked prominence on the outside of the bone, a large hollow surface looking outward and backward, for the origin of the external part of the muscle, and which large and deep groove seems to have been filled up by it. The distal extremity of the humerus of Megalonyx is pierced by a large but short oval canal for the passage of the median nerve and brachial artery, which canal is not to be seen in the humerus of the Megatherium or Mylodon, although there is in the humerus of the latter a groove near this spot along which, in all probability the nerve and artery passed in their course to the forearm. Fourth. The astragalus of the Megalonyx, Dr. Leidy says "bears much more resemblance to that of the recent, than to any of the extinct sloths. That of the Megatherium is the most characteristic bone in the skeleton: the upper surface being so hollowed on one side, as to throw the whole weight of the leg upon the inner side of the foot."

Fifth. The cubitus of Mylodon, as figured by Dr. Harlan, very slightly resembles either that of Megathere or Megalonyx.

From the few facts above stated, it would be unwise to draw hasty conclusions, and if the three genera have a common parentage it would be difficult to say to which genus the first pair belonged. Are there not, however, as strongly marked resemblances between the skeletons of the different members of this extinct tribe of animals as are to be found in Hipparion, Anchitherium and Equus, which have been brought forward by Professor Huxley in confirmation of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis?

The marked resemblance between the skeletons of the Megatherium and Mylodon as set up in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, must be acknowledged by all who have seen the skeletons, or the figures of them under the articles Unanu, "Penny Cyclopedia," Palæontology, "Encyclopædia Britannica," and the beautiful photograph by Mr. Allen of Boston.

No less marked will appear the mechanism of the elbow joint in all the genera of these digging animals, and the upper or mashing surface of their teeth, so characteristic of all the Megatheroid tribethe surface presenting at one time "a transverse sulcate plane, at another, excavated in the midst, with prominent margins."- H. C. PERKINS, M.D.

THE TERTIARY BEDS OF THE AMAZON. - Up to December, 1867, no fossils had been observed in the peculiar variegated clay formation which overspreads the great valley of the Amazon. At that time I was sojourning with my friend Hauxwell at Pebas, where I discovered a multitude of

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