thighs, more than double as long as broad at the base, shining, and somewhat hairy; their back is moderately convex towards the base; their outer side is straight; on the inner, towards the apex, they are gradually narrowing, and slightly rounded; the claw furrow is armed with rather small teeth, the claw is long and slender. Maxillæ rounded on the outer side and at the apex, slightly inclined towards the labium, which is transverse and broadly truncate. Palpi provided with coarse hairs; their tarsal joint is cylindrical and obtuse at the apex. Legs slender, with rather coarse hairs; the thighs are cylindrical (not incrassated at the base above), the tibia of the fourth pair are about four times as long as the patella. Abdomen inversely ovate, shining and covered, though not thickly, with very fine hairs; the vulva consists of a shallow transverse somewhat elliptical fovea near the rima genitalis, the anterior margin of which here forms an elevated rather thick, shining costa, narrowing from the rounded extremities towards the middle, in front, and thus slightly curved forwards, and bordering the fovea behind, and on the sides; the hind part of this costa (or the anterior elevated margin of the rima genitalis), seen from behind, exhibits two small narrow transverse foveæ in front of the larger fovea; the area vulvæ is somewhat striated transversely.

Color-Cephalathorax, sternum, lip and maxillæ black, the maxillæ a little paler. Mandibles dark yellowish, with three longitudinal black stripes. Palpi and legs of a very dull blackish yellow color. Abdomen grayish black, somewhat olivaceous on the under part; the hairs with which it is covered are olivaceous yellow. The area vulvæ is black, its hind elevated border brown.

Length of body nearly three millim.; length of cephalothorax three-quarters, of abdomen one and five-sixths millim., breadth of abdomen one and one-half millim. Legs I two and two-thirds, II nearly two and one-half, III two and one-quarter, IV nearly three and one-quarter millim.; pat. + tib. IV. nearly one millim. A single female of this obscure species, which appears to belong to the E. longipalpis group, was found at Polaris Bay. 3. Lycosa glacialis Thor.

Syn. 1872. Lycosa glacialis Thor. Om några Arachn. fr. Grönland, loc. cit., p. 159. Cambr., loc. cit. p. 281.

1877.

One adult female example from Foulke fiord.1

4. Trochosa inc. spec.

A young female of a Lycosoid which belongs, I think, to the genus Trochosa, was captured at Polaris Bay. The example is

1 I take this opportunity to change the names of two North American Lycosa, L. indagatrix and L. impavida, described in my paper, Descriptions of the Araneæ collected in Colorado in 1875 by A. S. Packard, Jr. (Bull. of the U. S. Geol, and Geograph. Survey, III, No. 2, pp. 512, 513), those names being pre-occupied. For L. indagatrix I propose the name L. dromaa; for L. impavida that of L. tachypoda.

very much damaged, most of the legs being reduced to fragments, and the color of the abdomen entirely lost. The foremost row of eyes appears to be slightly longer, or at least is not shorter, than the middle row; the interval between the anterior central eyes is evidently greater than the intervals between them and the anterior laterals, which appear to be slightly smaller than the anterior central eyes. The area occupied by the four posterior eyes is longer than broad in front, but shorter than broad behind; the interval between the two large eyes of the middle row is nearly double as great as their diameter; the interval between the two eyes of the hindmost row equals the length of the middle row. The cephalothorax is brown, its sides covered with coarse appressed, olivaceous-grayish hair; all along the back it has a broad paler band covered with grayish-white hair, which stretches from the middle row of eyes nearly to the hind margin of the cephalothorax, filling up the area between the four posterior eyes, somewhat dilated and rounded in the sides just behind this area, and then tapering gradually backwards. The sternum and the under side of the coxæ are brownish-testaceous, clothed with grayish hair; the mandibles are piceous, covered with coarse grayish hair at the base, black-haired towards the apex. The legs are brown, very distinctly black-ringed, covered with shorter grayish and longer black hairs. Length of the example: seven millim.; length of its cephalothorax three millim.; legs of the fourth pair eight and one-half, patella and tibia of that pair three millim.

By the form of the band along the back of the cephalothorax, as also by several other characteristics, this species would seem to be identical with Tarentula exasperans Cambr. (loc. cit., p. 283, Pl. VIII, fig. 7); but in that species the foremost row of eyes is said to be the shortest of the three, whereas in the spider before us the middle row is as short as, if not shorter than, the foremost. -T. Thorell, Genoa, April 8, 1878.

THELYPHONUS OFFENSIVELY ODOROUS.-In the Naturalist, XI. p. 367, the poisonous nature of the whip-scorpion (Thelyphonus giganteus) of Mexico and adjoining portions of the United States was described. That it emits from its "whip" an extremely offensive smell, is stated by Mr. E. Wilkinson, Jr., in a letter to the Smithsonian Institution. The animal was found under stones near Chihuahua. "After considerable difficulty," he writes, "I succeeded in capturing him, but not, however, until I had received. several doses of his powerful effluvia, which obliged me each time to retreat and catch a fresh breath."

THE PAPER NAUTILUS IN FLORIDA.-It has been doubted by some naturalists whether the Argonaut, or paper nautilus, occurs on the Florida coast. Two paper shells have been found here this winter, and last winter one was found with the animal entire, besides another empty shell. Its habitat is probably in tropical

seas, but it is sometimes brought to these shores by storms. In the Indian Ocean I have seen it in calm weather sailing on the surface, as described by old writers, but discredited by closet naturalists of these days.-S. C. C. Halifax Inlet, Florida, Feb. 17. 1878. From Forest and Stream, March 21, 1878.

The Naturalist, Vol. XI, p. 243, contains a notice by S. Lockwood, on the occurrence of the paper nautilus on the New Jersey shore.

BUCCINUM UNDATUM Linné.—I have received many interesting specimens of this shell from the lobster-men at this town (Stonington Conn). They were brought up from a depth of ten to nineteen fathoms in lobster-pots attached to the "bait." The shells are very fine, with apex absolutely perfect; and in nearly every instance the entire shell is heavily incrusted with Lithothamnion polymorphum. I have never before observed this nullipore on shells, though it is common all along this coast on rocks and stones. The incrustation has prevented the erosion of the shell and when removed discioses an almost perfect epidermis. The locality of the B. undatum obtained is off Stonington, at the eastern extremity of Fisher's Island, where they occur in considerable numbers. The locomotive powers of B. undatum must be quite remarkable, since, in one instance, a lobster-man took between thirty and forty from one pot. These, like Ilynassa obsoleta, are seemingly attracted, oftentimes, from a distance, by the bait in the pots.

TRACHYDERMON (LEPTOCHITON) RUBER Carpenter.-Four specimens of this species were found on the B. undatum taken off Fisher's Island. Its natural habitat is “almost exclusively on and among rocks." Its presence on these shells may serve, in some measure, to explain their distribution. The chiton must go where the shell goes, but at any point may detach itself or be rubbed off and so become "naturalized" at that point. The chitons are on the shell, doubtless, because the nullipore with which it is incrusted forms their natural food. Their color is nearly that of the living Lithothamnion, though one specimen is a very dark brown. Their color is, therefore; protective.-R. Ellsworth Call.

NESTING HABITS OF THE CANADA FLYCATCHER.-I have submitted the eggs referred to in the "NATURALIST," Vol. XI, p. 565, under the heading "Red-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta Canadensis)? nesting on the ground," to Dr. Brewer, for examination, and after comparing them with the various similar specimens in his cabinet, he thinks that they should be referred to the "Canada Flycatcher" (Myiodioctes canadensis), though even then he would retain the obnoxious interrogation point, as in some respects, the described nest is much unlike the typical nest of this bird.-Frank H. Nut

ter.

DROWNED BY AN OCTOPUS.-Though in British Columbia at the time of the occurence of the incident referred to by Mr. Moseley in Nature (vol. xvii, p. 27), I was in the interior, and consequently heard nothing of the matter. On reading Mr. Moseley's letter, however, I wrote to my friend Dr. W. F. Tolmie, of Victoria, and have just received from him an account verifying in all essential particulars the extract quoted by Mr. Moseley from the Weekly Oregonian.

A party of Makaw or Makah Indians, of Cape Flattery, were returning from a visit to the Songish Indians of the vicinity of Victoria, and camped the first afternoon at Metchosin, on the south shore of Vancouver Island. A young woman having separated herself from the others to bathe, did not return in the evening, and after having searched for her in vain the next morning, the rest of the party were about to continue on their journey, when, on rounding the first point, they saw the body of the woman as if seated on the sandy sea-bottom, with a large octopus attached to it, which, according to the description of Dr. Tolmie's informant, resembled a "fifty pound flour sack, full." The body was rescued in the manner described in the Oregonian, and when brought ashore, still had portions of the arms of the octopus adhering to it.

Dr. Tolmie also mentions the case of an Indian woman at Fort Simpson, who had, many years ago, a narrow escape from a similar death; also that among the Chimsgau Indians traditions of escapes and occasional cases of drowning exist, and further, that among these people a story is current that "a two-masted vessel manned in part or whole by men, with obliquely placed eyes and wearing queues (at Milbank Sound, Lat. 52°, about seventy years ago), was seized by an enormous squid, whose tentacles had to be chopped with axes ere the craft was clear of it. The ship is said to have been wrecked further south on the coast, in consequence of the evil influence of the monster."-GEORGE M. DAWSON, in Nature.

THE HABITS OF THE MUSKRAT.-About the middle of last November while walking along the banks of the North Fork of Sappa creek, Rawlins county, Kansas, my attention was directed. to an old beaver dam that had been recently repaired by a muskrat. Mud had been placed on the dam so as to make it watertight, but so far as I could see no sticks had been brought there, excepting those used in the first building by the beaver. Some of the mud was removed so as to allow more water to escape and a trap set. The next morning the trap was sprung and the mud partly replaced. No beaver signs were to be found anywhere, while the tracks of muskrats were numerous in the mud used in repairing, and elsewhere around the dam. A trapper informed me that he had frequently observed dams that had been repaired by muskrats in a simlar manner.--Russell Hill.

IDENTITY OF DIEMYCTYLUS MINIATUS WITH DIEMYCTYLUS VIRIDESCENS.-Last summer I brought home from Sullivan county, Penna., a large number of specimens of Diemyctylus miniatus Raf., popularly called "little red lizard" or "red eft," and after keeping them in a dark box filled with moss, saturated with water, all the specimens have changed their color from bright vermilion to the olive shade characteristic of D. viridescens, and are in all particulars identical with the last named species. Although the specimens were kept in a moist medium, they were at no time immersed, and to make the test crucial I dropped three of them into a tub inclined at an angle with the floor and partially filled. Upon their immersion they immediately swam or wriggled vigorously for land, but after leaving the water and stopping a few seconds they turned around and walked back into the water and remained there, only coming up at intervals for air. One remained thus fifteen minutes before rising to the surface. Some hours after, upon watching them again, it was twenty minutes before one of them returned to the surface, and as the others seemed disposed to remain under a much longer time I was obliged to leave them. These specimens have been kept in the house all winter and are almost as lively as those I watched at the bottom of the lake in the summer. This morning I agitated the water with the tips of my fingers, and, upon attracting their attention, saw two of them gulp down two pieces of raw meat. Nothing could more satisfactorily demonstrate their entire satisfaction with the element in which they had been newly placed. The conclusion then is that instead of two well marked species, D. viridescens and D. miniatus, or of a species and a variety, we have but a single species Diemyctylus miniatus.

Dr. Hallowell was the first to express his belief that these socalled distinct species were the same (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Feb. 1856). This was followed in April, 1859 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila)., by the statement made by Prof. Cope, after detailing the synonyms of D. viridescens, “We include in the above synonyms those of the nominal species D. miniatus, which we think with Dr. Hallowell is a state of D. viridescens." In the Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Prof. Verrill's remarks, respecting D. miniatus, "I cannot agree with Prof. Cope in regarding this as a form of D. viridescens."-Howard A. Kelly.

AN EARLY BIRD INDEED —On March 21st I was shown a chipping sparrow's nest (Spizella socialis) in the midst of a strawberry bed on the farm of Mr. John P. Sanborn, near the city of Port Huron, Michigan, in which were three newly-hatched little ones and an egg. Such an occurrence, even in the middle of April, is unprecedented in this latitude. Robins appeared February 11th, bluebirds February 18th, blackbirds, song sparrows and goldenwinged wood-peckers observed February 22d, bob-o-links March 2d, martins March 3d.-G. A. Stockwell, M.D.,Port Huron, Mich.