94 5. The structure and development of the leaves suggest the hypothesis that the movements of the clappers" are due to variable turgescense (absorption of sap) on upper parenchymal surface alone. 6 Sensitive hairs are the active organs that convey the impulse of irritation direct to the sub-epidermal tissues.-Bot. Zeitung, Oct., 1877. Sir Joseph Hooker, of Kew Gardens, London, and Dr. Asa Gray, will contribute to Hayden's Report, (U. S. Geological Surveys of the Territories) for the present season. A Philadelphia gentleman, by the name of Neil, recently decease 1, provides in his will $50,000 for tree planting in Fairmount Park. Under the head of "Travels of the Po tato Beetle," the Scientific Farmer publishes, with other items, the following: Captain. John Eva is of the schooner H. E. Riley states that on a recent trip from Cuba to Boston, when fully 100 miles from land, east of the capes of Virginia, his vessel was board :d by several hundred Colorado potato beetles. This was about October 8th, and there was a heavy blow from the north-west. The insects were evidently aided in their journey to this distance from land by the wind. Some of them when thrown overboard, spre..d their wings before reaching the water, and flew about easily, a few returning to the vessel. OUR BOOK SHELF. MANUSCRIPT NOTES FROM MY JOURNAL, OR ENTOMOLOGICAL INDEX TO AGRICULTURAL REPORTS. BY TOW VEND GLOVER, Washington, 1877. This is a quarto of 103 pages, in the well-known chirography of the Author, transferred to stone and printed by lithog raphy. In addition to a complete index to all the reports issued by the Department of Agriculture, it includes a list of vegetable and animal substances injured or destroyed by insects, etc. Such an index must be of great value to entomologists desiring to use these reports, It is with regret that we make the an- especially as references are given, with all nouncement of the death of D. H. Jacques, the insects named, to the author's unpub. for six years the editor of the Rural Carolished plate.s. It is a matter of regret howlinien. He was also favorably known by ever, that but 60 copies have been printed, and this small edition is already exhaus his writings on Phrenology. ted. The New England Farmer grows facetious. It says: Entomologogists wil be pleased to learn that that particularly disgusting and valuable carnivorous beetle, the Amblychila cylindriformis, whose very existence has been doubted, is now found In considerable quantities in Kansas. Collectors have paid $20 for a single specimen and one which was recently brought to New York and fed on raw meat was viewed with emotions too deep for words by jostling crowds of excited bug-sharps. A Preliminary Catalogue of the R ptiles, Fishes and Leptardians of the Bermudas, with descriptions of four secies of fishes, supposed to be new. By G. Brown Goode, pp. 10. From the American Journal of Science and as, October, 1877. What Anaesthetic shall be used? By Julian J. Chisolm M. D., pp. 23. Read before the Baltimore Academy of Medicine. Field and Forest A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES. VOL. III.-DECEMBER, 1877.-No. 6. Notes on the Habits of the Green-backed California Humming Bird. Selasphorus Alleni, (Henshaw.) A letter from my correspondent, Mr. C. A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., contains some interesting notes on the habits of the above recently described species, and with his permission I publish them as an acceptable contribution to our knowledge of this bird. The time of its arrival about San Francisco varies with the character of the season. When this is favorable it may be expected about the 10th of February, but, on the contrary, should the weather be cold and rainy, our little stranger, fresh from sub-tropical sweets, will hardly risk an appearance e're the 25th of this month. The experience of former years has taught him where he will find food in abundance, his chief necessity after his fatiguing flight northward, and without hesitation or loitering he flies straight to the mountains, and feasts himself upon the nectared blossoms of the Manzanita bushes, now in full bloom. There he may be seen, with numbers of his kind, glancing amongst the shrubbery, and forming with his fellows a jolly brotherhood of bachelors, till in a week or so the arrival of the more soberly dressed females, with their shy ways, sets his mind working in other channels. During the mating season now at hand his temper, none of the best at any time, becomes irascible in the extreme, and woe betide the intruder in the shape of rival humming bird who trenches on his vested rights. With courage the most dauntless he will attack any foe, be it small or large, and where his tiny strength fails his colossal impudence wins him the day. The selection of mates, not without many a jealous contest, goes on apace, and soon the happy pairs may be found in the lower valleys, where the interval of sunny sky and spring weather has wrought many marvelous changes in the flora; and now abundance reigns where before was nothing but dry stalks and withered herbage. In searching for a site for its first nest-for Mr. Allen assures us that two broods are reared in a season-this species shows the same preference as displayed by most others of our representatives of the family, and chooses the various evergreens, some building on the large Redwood and Cypress trees, and others selecting the ornamental evergreens of the gardens. The thick foliage of these doubtless adds much to the security of the young at this early and oft times inclement season. The taste that prompts them in the choice of material for their nests, and the cunning that guides them in the bestowal of lichens and bits of mosses on the outside, so as effectually to conceal it, are characteristic of the family at large. In fact, the uniformity of structure to be observed in the nests throughout this family is quite noteworthy, forming in this respect quite a contrast to the great variability of design, materials and choice of position to be noted in almost all other groups. So that the nest of the present speeies need not be described, farther than to recognize its general correspondence to the type. A nest before me, collected by Mr. Allen, and containing the usual two white eggs, is a marvel of beauty and taste. Nor need we dwell upon the care and attention which are so lavishly displayed by the present species, as by all the Humming Birds, on their offspring. Both parents will usually be found near the nest, over which they keep a jealous watch and ward, and are ever ready to do battle for their eggs or young. Later, when the young of the first hatching are well on the wing, a change of locality is rendered necessary by the scarcity of flowers. The hills and open valleys, so bright but a while ago with the blossoms and verdure of spring, now, from the effects of the drought and hot sun, become seared and brown, and to an eastern eye would recall nothing but the usual death of vegetation attendant on approaching winter. But this is no new experience to our Humming Birds, and knowing all about it not a whit do they care. Away go the restless imps to the banks of the now narrowed streams, where their sharp roving eyes still find many flowering plants which are fostered by the shade and nourished by the moist earth. Here the busy pairs begin housekeeping and soon the second nest is finished, being now placed on a bush or deciduous tree; in due time the second brood appears. Mr. Allen has found the nest containing young as early as March 22. Commencing thus betimes, the old birds have no difficulty in seeing a second brood safely out and all ready to leave for winter quarters by the latter part of August. The first to arrive in spring, the males take the initiative in the fall journey, leaving the females and young to follow at their leisure. A few of the latter linger on till into September, and then take a hasty departure This marked discrepancy in the time of the fall migration of the sexes in favor of the males is an interesting fact, and readily explains what other observers beside myself have been puzzled by, viz: the entire absence of adult males during the latter part of August and early September in localities where the females and young abounded. Mr. Allen informs me that this species remains in considerable numbers all winter in the gardens about Los Angelos. Southern California, then, with the peninsula of Lower California, probably forms its winter habitat, and thus may be explained its apparent absence from Mexico, where it is replaced at all seasons by the allied species, S. rufa. The Green-backed Hummer appears to be the common representative of its genus in the low valleys of California from the western slope of the mountains to the coast. I say common, because a second species of Selosphorus, the Rufous backed Hummer is also found in California. But in the low districts and in summer when the latter birds appear to be quite rare. Mr. Allen tells me that in all his collecting he has found but three nests. Its arrival about San Francisco, Mr. Allen says, takes place at a a much later date than that of the other bird, the time being from the 25th of March to the 5th of April. We know that the Rufous-backed Hummer is found very far to the north, and probably the great mass of the migrants pass entirely through California, using the mountains as a highway, though some perhaps remain in the high interior ranges. In this way the species eludes our observer's notice. The S. Alleni, in contrast, seems to be absent from the region north of California, and lives in the lowlands, to the exclusion of the high mountains. The assumption of its absence at the north is favored by the early date of its arrival in Middle California and the promptitude shown in its preparations for nesting. In these respects it is quite comparable to the Calypte anna, which is known to be a species of rather southern habitat. H. W. HENSHAW. Wallace's Geographical Distribution of Animals.* As to the geographical distribution of marine animals Mr. Wallace has been quite reticent, simply giving some facts respecting the range of families of sea mammals, fishes, and mollusks in the fourth part of his work, and some brief general remarks in the first (e. g., vol. i. pp. 15, 30). At any rate, he nowhere insists upon the want of correlation between the inland and marine faunas, and no reader would be enlightened as to the positive incongruity, and even contrast, between the two in their relations with others. This antagonism has been appreciated by very few. In most works it is quietly assumed or insisted upon that the sea and inland animals of a given region are integral constituents of a homogeneous fauna, and by implication, at least, that such a fauna has in its several parts one and the same relation to others. Such is very far from being the case. In the distribution of marine life temperature plays an all important part. Thus, the relations between the successive faunas, in a latitudinal direction, of the shores of the several continents are transversed by relations existing in a longitudinal direction. The several tropical faunas are, for example, much more closely related to each other than they are to the faunas along the same reach of shore toward the arctic or antarctic regions. This relationship is evinced more or less in every class and branch of animals e. g., the mammals, the fishes, the mollusks, the crustaceans, the worms, the echinoderms, and the cœlenterates. Consequently the marine faunas cannot be at all correlated with the primary realms or regions of the globe. To such an extent does temper*ature determine the distribution of life in the seas that even bathymetrical conditions may be subordinated, and types of the shallow arctic and antarctic seas represented in the cold deep sea under the equator. Some forms almost identical reappear at the opposite * Continued from page 80, November number. |