Atlantic, it is now believed to be entirely extinct, none having been seen or heard of alive since 1844, when two were taken near Iceland."

While at Montreal in Aug., 1871, Mr. Alfred Lechevallier, a naturalist who has collected largely in Labrador, informed me of a specimen in his possession of this supposed to be extinct species. It was found dead in the vicinity of St. Augustin, Labrador coast, in November, 1870, by some Indians from whom Mr. Lechevallier obtained it while collecting there at the time. It was a male, and although in a very bad state he preserved it and has recently sold it to a naturalist in France, who is to send it to Austria.

Although it was a very poor specimen he realized two hundred dollars. RUTHVEN DEANE, Cambridge, Mass.

ACTIVITY OF TROUT AND SALMON. Frank Buckland says of the American brook trout: "These American fish are much more

active and, I was going to write it may be even so intelligent fish than the salmon or trout (English). Possibly they may have imbibed some of the national American sharpness. I think I shall consult them on the Alabama question."

I myself, while manipulating trout and salmon, at Orland, last November, learned that the former, although not a quarter the size of the salmon, was the more difficult fish to handle. This was partially owing to the plump shape of the trout, which caused the hand to slip off over the head or tail, and to a greater extent to its superior activity. The facility with which salmon yielded to manipulation was an agreeable surprise.-C. G. A.

THE CAROLINA HEMIRHAMPHUS. My observations confirm and extend Dr. Coues' note (Am. Naturalist, vi., p. 49,) on this species. According to my note-book the fish was first seen by me Sept. 21, 1871, when several specimens were taken in a seine with mullet, and became very abundant about the last of the month. At this season vast schools of the Bluefish (Pomatomus saltator) were observed feeding upon the still vaster schools of the Hemirhamphus, which appear to be their favorite food. I have seen a Bluefish, when drawn into a boat, eject from its mouth as many as eight good-sized Hemirhamphi.-H. C. YARROW, M.D., U.S.A., Fort Macon, N. C.

POUCHED RAT (Perognatus fasceatus). This is not very abundant in Texas. They dwell in burrows eight to ten inches deep,

with subterranean galleries, having several outlets. It has a large head, full lustrous black eyes, teeth exceedingly sharp and well set. Ears round and one-fourth of an inch long, tail two inches long, clavate and tufted with short, stiff hair; feet long, five fingers, body well formed with muscular arms and thighs.-G. LINCECUM, Long Point, Texas. - Communicated by the Smithsonian Institution.

A NEW BIRD TO THE UNITED STATES. An esteemed correspondent, Lieutenant Charles Bendire, U. S. Army, stationed at Tucson, Arizona, writes to me concerning an owl of the genus Glaucidium which he procured in that locality. It differs, be says, from Cassin's description of G. gnoma as follows:-"The tail-feathers, which are brown, are distinctly barred with fulvous, or rather rufous, fading into white at the edges of the inner webs. The feathers of the head are ashy-brown with very narrow longitudinal stripes of white. The quills of the wing are brown, their outer webs with small triangular spots of pale rufous, the inner webs with larger spots of the same shape, ashy white fading to pure white on the edges." He was thoughtful enough to enclose some of the characteristic feathers, and on my showing them to Mr. Ridgway, now our highest authority on American birds of prey, he pronounced them to be those of Glaucidium ferrugineum, a form not hitherto found within our limits.- ELLIOTT COUES.

THE NEST, EGGS, AND BREEDING HABITS OF HARPORHYNCHUS CRISSALIS. In a later communication, containing much novel and interesting information upon the birds of southern Arizona, Lieutenant Bendire furnishes a most excellent biography of this species, which I lose no time in making public, since nothing of special consequence has hitherto been recorded. Although the bird is still extremely rare in collections, Lieutenant Bendire took no less than six nests with eggs during the fourth week of March last.

"The nest," he writes, "is externally composed of dry sticks, some of which are fully a quarter of an inch thick; the lining consists exclusively of dry rotten fibres of a species of wild hemp, or Asclepias; in none of the nests did I find any roots, leaves or hair. The inner diameter of the nest is about three inches, with a depth of about two inches. Taking it all together, it is not very artistically constructed. None of the nests were more than three feet from the ground. In two cases I found nests in a dense bushy thicket of wild currant, twice again in willow bushes, and

in another instance in an ironwood bush. The red-vented thrush is very shy, hard to observe, restless and quick in its movements. It appears to prefer damp, shady localities near water courses, and confines itself principally to spots where the wild currant is abundant. At present [Mar. 27], it appears to feed principally on insects. Its flight is short-only long enough to enable the bird to reach the next clump of bushes. It seems to have more frequent recourse to running than to flying, and dives through the densest undergrowth with great facility and swiftness. The usual number of eggs laid by this bird (strange as it may appear) is only two, of an emerald green color, and unspotted. The first set I found [Mar. 22] contained small embryos, the third [next day] was only a single egg with a very large embryo; it was broken, and must have been laid as early as the tenth of March. From the number of nests taken it would appear that this bird is common; but this is by no means the case, and I believe I have found every nest of it on the Rillito. I never saw the bird along the Santa Cruz River, near Tucson, or in any other part of the Territory where I have been, including a good portion of the Salt River and Gila country." Lieutenant Bendire is evidently observing and collecting with zeal, industry and discretion, in an interesting and little-worked field. Important results are to be anticipated from his labors, and I am sure that other ornithologists join me in wishing him abundant success. - ELLIOTT COUES.

INTELLIGENCE IN MONKEYS. I have two species of Cebus in my study, C. capucinus and a half grown C. apella. They are "Jack" and "Jim," and a friend inquires whether they are not like the James and John of scripture, sons of Cebidae (ee)? Jack displays a thousand traits of monkey ingenuity. He is an admirable catcher, seldom missing anything from a large brush to a grain, using two hands or one. His cage door is fastened by two hooks, and these are kept in their places by nails driven in behind them. He generally finds means sooner or later of drawing out the nails, unhooking the hooks, and getting free. He then occupies himself in breaking up various objects and examining their interior appearances, no doubt in search of food. To prevent his escape I fastened him by a leather strap to the slats of the cage, but he soon untied the knot, and then relieved himself of the strap by cutting and drawing out the threads which held the flaps for

the buckle. He then used the strap in a novel way. He was accustomed to catch his food (bread, potatoes, fruit, etc.) with his hands, when thrown to him. Sometimes the pieces fell short three or four feet. One day he seized his strap and began to throw it at the food, retaining his hold of one end. He took pretty correct aim, and finally drew the pieces to within reach of his hand. This performance he constantly repeats, hooking and pulling the articles to him in turns and loops of the strap. Sometimes he loses his hold of the strap. If the poker is handed to him he uses that with some skill in the recovery of the strap. When this is drawn in, he secures his food as before.

Here is an act of intelligence which must have been originated by some monkey, since no lower or ancestral type of animal possesses the hands necessary for its accomplishment. Whether originated by Jack, or by some ancestor of the forest who used vines for the same purpose, cannot be readily ascertained.-Edw. D. COPE.

GEOLOGY.

A GLACIAL PHENOMENON.-On Sunday afternoon the writer of this visited the shore of Lake Winnebago,* at the foot of Washington street, and found the ice in the lake apparently solid, with the exception of a narrow strip about twenty feet wide, extending along the shore as far as could be seen. In this belt the ice had thawed out, leaving an open space of water. During Sunday night, as will be remembered, a severe snow-storm came up, accompanied by a fierce east wind, blowing almost a hurricane. On Monday morning the ice in immense cubes was piled to the height of from twenty to twenty-five feet along the shore forming a huge breastwork two or three rods in width. So powerful was the force with which the ice moved that large boulders two or three feet in diameter were lifted high in the air. Trees growing on the beach were broken square off, and in one or two cases torn out bodily by the roots and carried several rods. About half way between Washington and Merritt streets, a large basswood tree about two feet in diameter formerly grew on the beach but a few feet from the water. Now its trunk and roots lie at a distance of thirty or forty feet, carried there by the irresistible

*Lake Winnebago is in Wisconsin. It is twenty-eight miles long and ten wide, cov ering an area of two hundred and twelve square miles. Similar phenomena occur on other small lakes throughout the north-west.

force of the glacial upheaval. At the residence of R. J. Harney on the bank of the lake, the ice broke down and destroyed a large number of valuable fruit trees and serious fears were at one time entertained that the house would be carried away.

Hundreds of spectators have visited the shore to look at the immense pile of ice which is now melting in the sun's rays.- I. A. LAPHAM, Milwaukee. - From the Oshkosh Northwestern.

ANTHROPOLOGY.

FOSSIL MAN IN FRANCE. We have a great find here - Mr. Revière of Paris has been carrying on excavations in a bone cave here for all the past winter, digging it completely out. He has at last obtained a nearly complete skeleton, skull perfect, of a large sized fully grown man, at a depth of about ten feet in the accumulated debris of the cave, and the bottom is not yet reached. position tells of probable burial, but at that depth it means something. The skull is well formed, judging from photographs before me.-S. H. SCUDDER, Mentone, France.

MICROSCOPY.

Its

DEEP-SEA LIFE. One of the latest contributions to our knowledge of this comparatively new branch of science, comes in the form of a Report on the Cruise of the School-ship "Mercury," in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. The commissioners of public charities and corrections of New York, desiring that the practice voyages of the above named ship, which is used as a reformatory and nautical school for a part of the vagrant boys under their care, should be made also useful to science, furnished instructions and apparatus for taking a series of observations, including deepsea soundings, between the coasts of Africa and of South America, during the early months of 1871. The microscopical interest of the voyage belongs to the fifty samples of sea water, partly from the surface, and partly from a variety of depths, brought up by means of a water collecting cylinder attached to a sounding line, and to the specimens obtained on fourteen occasions from the bottom, by means of Lieutenant J. M. Brooke's detaching apparatus. Professor Henry Draper's excellent and suggestive report, though devoted mainly to depths, currents, temperatures, etc., presents the following in regard to organisms: "It needed no special