Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 4. köide

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1878

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Page 308 - The summary of the relationships of this order with which I close my account of it in the second volume of the Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories (p. 126) is stated as follows : — "As a conclusion, it may be decided that these reptiles were not nearly related to the Varanidce, as has been supposed...
Page 497 - Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud Of congregated myriads numberless, The rushing of whose wings was as the sound Of a broad river, headlong in its course Plunged from a mountain summit ; or the roar Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks.
Page 329 - As Mr. Wallace has remarked, — "To those who accept the theory of development as worked out by Mr. Darwin, and the views as to the general permanence and immense antiquity of the great continents and oceans so ably developed by Sir Charles Lyell, it ceases to be a matter of surprise that the tropics of Africa, Asia, and America should differ in their productions, but rather that they should have anything in common. Their similarity, not their diversity, is the fact that most frequently puzzles...
Page 318 - ... system. On two main points every system yet proposed, or that probably can be proposed, is open to objection ; they are, — Istly, that the several regions are not of equal rank ; — 2ndly, that they are not equally applicable to all classes of animals. As to the first objection, it will be found impossible to form any three or more regions, each of which differs from the rest in an equal degree or in the same...
Page 699 - The fringes are blackish. The hind wings are pale yellowish white, shaded with fuscous on costal region and more or less terminally before the blackish terminal black line ; the fringes are dusky.
Page 693 - July 7, 1866, at Hamilton, Mass., the moth appearing July 20. The case is quite different in form from that previously described, being regularly oval cylindrical, .55 inch long and .35 inch in diameter. It is constructed in the same manner as those found on the alder. This striking difference in the form of the case may possibly be due to the difference in the form of the leaves of the food plant, the large, broad leaves of the alder inducing the larva to build a horn-like, much elongated case,...
Page 270 - The complicated mechanism of the act of striking may be thus described: — The snake prepares for action by throwing itself into a number of superimposed coils, upon the mass of which the neck and a few inches more lie loosely curved, the head elevated, the tail projecting and rapidly vibrating. At the approach of the intended victim, the serpent, by sudden contraction of the muscles upon the convexity of the curves, straightens out the anterior portion of the body, and thus darts forward the head....
Page 693 - July between the leaves of the alder, where it makes a horn-shaped case of black cylindrical pellets of excrements, arranged regularly in circles, the additions being made around the mouth of the case. The case is about an inch and a half long ; its mouth a quarter of an inch in diameter. Within, it is densely lined with white silk. The pupa is of the usual color, mahogany-brown, the end of the abdomen rounded, with six hairs projecting from a transverse supraanal projecting ridge. On each abdominal...
Page 377 - ... abundantly evident. As has been already shown, the broader or primary zones are, first, an Arctic or North Circumpolar Zone, embracing the arctic, subarctic, and colder temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, throughout the whole of which area there is a marked homogeneity of mammalian life, as well as of animal and vegetable life in general ; secondly, that below this there is a broad belt of life, which, in its general fades, is distinctive of the temperate and warm-temperate latitudes,...
Page 319 - I heartily agree with the remark), " construct our typical or standard Zoological Eegions in the first place, from a consideration of the distribution of mammalia, only bringing to our aid the distribution of other groups to determine doubtful points.

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