reflects great credit upon the gentlemen under whose supervision the paper was printed, that without the opportunity of revision by the author, and from manuscript closely written on both sides of thin paper, as we incidentally learn, so very few errors should have occurred.

BIRDS OF KANSAS.*-The present list, "though based upon the personal observations of the author during a residence of six years in Kansas," does not purport to be a complete catalogue of the birds of that State. It embraces the names of two hundred and thirty-nine species, and contains short notes respecting the relative abundance and special haunts of most of them. Whilst of considerable value as a faunal list, it abounds in errors to such an extent as greatly to impair its usefulness. Among the one hundred species marked with an asterisk to show that they are "known to breed in Kansas" we find Regulus calendula, Dendrœca coronata, Pinicola "canadensis,” Passerella iliaca, and Ægialitis semipalmatus, whose southern limit in the breeding season is well known to be many hundred miles north of Kansas. On the other hand such characteristic and abundant summer species as Calamospiza bicolor and Coturniculus passerinus, and nearly twenty others now well known to breed in Kansas, are without the asterisk. Among the species one naturally expects to see in a list of the pretensions of the present, we look in vain for Dendroca cærulea, Vireo Noveboracensis, Plectrophanes ornatus, P. Maccownii, Guiraca melanocephala, Spizella pallida, Peucæa "Cassinii," Antrostomus Nuttalli, Pediœcetes phasianellus and Egialitis montanus, all of which are more or less common, whilst some of them are among the most characteristic species of the middle and western portions of the state. Among the western species mentioned are Falco polyagrus, Colaptes "hybridus," Poospiza bilineata, Passerella schistacea, Junco Oregonus, Icterus Bullockii, and Centrocercus urophasianus, all of which may occur of course as stragglers, though not often seen in the latitude of Kansas, east of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps for Centrocercus urophasianus the writer meant to have written Pediœcetes phasianellus, and for Ægi

15, for EURYTHAME read EURYTHEME; p. 45, line 31, for Calverlyi read Calverleyi; p. 49. 1. 2, for Epay. Pityrus read Epar. Tityrus; p. 50, 1. 25, for THRASS read THRASO; p. 50, 1. 12, for Endamus read Eudamus; p. 59, 1. 15, for Palatka read Pilatka; p. 62, 1. 2, for EUDRYAS read EUDAMUS; p. 62, 1. 9, for Buleuta read Bulenta.

* Catalogue of the Birds of Kansas. By Frank H. Snow. Professor of Natural History and Meteorology in the University of Kansas, Topeka, 1872. pp. 8.

alitis semipalmatus, E. montanus, both of which species, as already noticed, are omitted from the list, though it is hard to suppose that in either case he could have mistaken the one bird for the other.

While faunal lists of the birds of the western states and territories are so very desirable, they more than defeat their usefulness unless prepared with a considerable degree of accuracy. If the writer of the present list had restricted it to a smaller locality, say for instance a single county, and had added from his note books more explicit data, especially in respect to the times of arrival and departure of the birds, his catalogue would have had far more value as a faunal record, and would doubtless have been as a whole much more accurate.-J. A. A.

NEWTON'S ORNITHOLOGICAL REGISTER.*-The pamphlet before us is a description of a Record of Ornithological Observations made by Messrs. A. and E. Newton for the years 1850-'59. Great advantage flows from a continuous series of such observations in any department of Natural History, and the system devised and perfected for this purpose seems to us very praiseworthy. It is difficult to gain an idea of this unique register without inspection of an accompanying lithographic sheet representing a month's record in fac-simile; but it will suffice to say that the record is kept almost entirely by means of a few simple but expressive symbols, the use and purport of which may be readily learned. By these signs a day's observations may be duly recorded in a few moments, and the system recommends itself for this if for no other reason. Prof. Newton says that the benefits accruing were "out of all proportion" to the time and trouble bestowed; and not the least of these, was the enforcing of a habit of close daily observation, essential to the culture of practical ornithology. Many extremely valuable, and some novel, facts were ascertained respecting the movements, the pairing, nesting, singing of birds, and their general habits. It was unexpectedly discovered, among other things, that the meteorological observations made in the hope that one set of observations might throw light on the other, gave negative results, no birds proving reliable weather-prophets. We should judge that the digestion of the great mass of material accumulated in this

*On a Method of Registering Natural History Observations. By Alfred Newton. From the Norfolk and Norwich Society's Proceedings, 1870.

way would be a matter of much time and care, but the same is true of observations recorded in the usual manner.

We wish that a number of copies of this interesting brochure could be placed on sale at the Naturalists' Agency, so that our ornithologists might have the opportunity of acquainting themselves with the merits of the record, and consider the propriety of adopting the system. E. C.

BOTANY.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF COMPOSITÆ.

Mr. G. Bentham read a paper on this subject at two recent meetings of the Linnean Society, in continuation of his paper on the structure of the same order of plants (Academy, vol. iii. p. 73). The genera and species of this largest order of flowering plants are about equally distributed between the Old and New World; of the genera about 410 are found in the former and 430 in the latter; of species, about 4400 in the Old World and a rather larger number in the New. Not quite 70 species are common to the two hemispheres, and these mostly belong to the extreme northern regions; a few are common to New Zealand and Antarctic America ; not more than a dozen tropical species are found in both the Old and New World, and some of these are coast plants. The form which Mr. Bentham looks on as prototypic, and possibly ancestral to the whole order, includes a few closely allied genera, distinguished by their regular corolla, belonging rather more to the American than the Old World distribution, being found in Chili, with an outlying genus in St. Helena. Other types, apparently of great antiquity, are found in Africa, Australia, and Western America. Since the separation of the Indo-Malayan and Australian regions from one another, there appears to have been a continuity of races of Compositæ across the tropics from south to north. The paper, which enters exhaustively into the distribution of the various tribes and more important genera, will be published in the "Journal of the Linnean Society."- Academy.

THE COLORING MATTER OF FUNGI. Mr. W. C. Sorby has communicated to "Nature" a series of observations on the coloring matters of the fungi found in his own neighborhood (Sheffield in Yorkshire). So far he has been able to determine, by means of their optical and other properties, the existence of at least thirty distinct coloring matters, and he believes the number will be eventually larger. The majority of fungi contain at least two

and many contain several different colored substances which can be separated or perfectly well distinguished. Fully twenty have such well-marked optical characters that they could be recognized without difficulty in other plants; but of these only one is known to occur in any plant not a fungus. This is the fine orange color, soluble in bi-sulphide of carbon, found in Calocera viscosa, which agrees perfectly with the more orange-colored xanthophyll of some faded leaves, and of the exterior layer of the root of the carrot. Closely allied species sometimes contain two different kinds of coloring matter in common, but very often one or more differ; while at the same time species belonging to somewhat widely separated genera are occasionally colored by identical substances. Notwithstanding this, on the whole, there appears to be a very decided connection between the general organization of the plant and the particular kind of coloring-matter developed in it. A. W. B.

NEW STATIONS OF RARE PLANTS.—Saxifraga aizoides. Warsaw Glen, Wyoming Co., N. Y. Very abundant high up on shaded, wet rocks. (Genesee Shales.) Also on the west bank of the Genesee River at Portage, Wyoming Co., N. Y. between the middle and lower falls where it occurs, for nearly a mile, on the high cliffs. Found also on the Gardeau Bluffs (425 ft. high) still further down the river.

Lythrum Salicaria. Marshes at the head of Cayuga Lake.

Primula Mistassimca. South bank of Fall Creek, Ithaca, just below the Triphammer Fall, - abundant.

Pinguicula vulgaris. With the preceding, and also in several places on Cascadilla Creek, Ithaca.

Sisymbrium canescens. Enfield Glen, Tompkins Co.; Watkins Glen, Schuyler Co., N. Y.

Phlox subulata. Everywhere about Ithaca. Also on the Gardeau Bluffs, Wyoming Co., N. Y.

Sedum ternatum. A few specimens in the glen of Six Mile Creek, Ithaca obviously indigenous.-D. S. JORDAN, Instructor in Botany, Cornell University.

ZOOLOGY.

A RARE ANIMAL.-On Saturday, February 17, 1872, there was brought to me an animal I had never seen before, and which I thought was new to this region. In general appearance it very

much resembled a fox, except that it was smaller and more slender in its proportions, and it had a ringed tail as long as its body. The facial expression reminded me of a raccoon. Upon referring to the "Quadrupeds of America" I found it to be an animal of which it was the sole representative both in genus and species, for it proved to be the Bassaris astuta, the generic name being derived from a word signifying a little fox and the specific name having reference to its manners and habits. It is described as an inhabitant of Mexico and Western Texas, was originally found in the vicinity of the City of Mexico and referred to by the old Spaniard Hernandez. It was first brought to the attention of naturalists by Mr. Deppe who, in 1826, sent a specimen to Berlin from Western Texas. The first scientific description was by Lichenstein, who named it as above. It is carnivorous, subsisting on small animals, birds and insects. Red river, in Texas, is given as its extreme northern geographical limit, and it is an interesting fact in natural history to find such an extreme southern species existing in full size and vigor in this so much more northern latitude, so far from what has been considered its native habitat. It suggests some interesting questions. Is it an accidental wanderer from its far-off home? This can hardly be, for, although probably full grown, its teeth indicate it as a young animal; and the great distance to be travelled from Texas to Central Ohio, and the time necessarily consumed in the journey, as well as the obstacles of great rivers to be crossed, are against the theory of a single and chance migration from its original locality. Have we here, then, another example of the wonderful power of nature which enables the animal "in the struggle for life" to adapt itself to the varying conditions and circumstances with which it is surrounded? For our specimen is thickly clothed with fur, while its progenitors, like most other warm climate species, were probably thinly covered with hair, and this fact is against any recent migration, for surely more than one season would be required to convert a simply haired, into a fur-bearing animal. I conclude our specimen was native born in the locality where it was found, and if others of its species in Mexico and Texas are without fur, our animal is a descendant from those which, perhaps, through many generations, have been gradually fitted for a residence in a more northern climate.

The little animal of which I have been speaking measured thirty