species, resulting from at present only partially known laws of climatic influence. To the latter I incline as being the most rational and the best supported by analogy and by facts.* NOTE- In the article on the Birds of Colorado, in the June number of this Journal, I omitted to add that several specimens of the white-throated wren (Catherpes Mexicanus) were obtained near Colorado City, where it was a common species. This is the first time, apparently, that this species has been reported from any point within the United States east of Southern Nevada (Ridgway). It possesses a voice of wonderful strength and penetration for so small a bird, and seemed to delight in the startling echoes it awakened among the high cliffs of the Garden of the Gods.” On page 350, June number of this Journal, it was stated that Chamea fasciata was apparently common near Colorado City. As it has been heretofore known only from the extreme southwestern portions of the United States, I should perhaps add that no specimens were taken, but as I was within a few yards of it on a number of occasions, I cannot doubt the correctness of the observation. I take this opportunity of correcting the following errata : On page 345, line 12, read chipping for "nipping;" p. 347, line 28, read Selasphorus for “ Selasophorus ;” p. 350, line 3, read tephrocotis for “griseinucha;” p. 351, line 6, read Actodromas Bairdii for "Pelidna Americana." VISIT TO THE ORIGINAL LOCALITY OF THE BY C. C. PARRY, M.D. HAPPENING to spend a few days in the vicinity of Glen's Falls, N. Y., I concluded to improve the opportunity of visiting the locality of the newly discovered species of Arceuthobium (A. minutum Engel. ined.) parasitic on Abies nigra. I accordingly called on Mrs. Lucy Millington of the above place, to obtain the desired information as to the precise locality where it was first found. It is to this lady that the botanical world is indebted for the discovery of this interesting addition to the Flora of New York. Mrs. Millington's first specimens were collected on the 10th of August, 1871, † and were then recognized by her as a distinct parasite of which she could find no account in any of the botanical works at her command. Specimens were accordingly * On climatic variation see Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., Vol. ii, No. 3, and Vol. iii, No. 6, where the subject is further discussed, and where most of the facts on which the above remarks are based are given in detail. A brief record of Mrs. Millington's discovery has been given on page 166 of this volume of the NATURALIST.-Eds. transmitted to Mr. Leggett of the Torrey Botanical Club of N. Y., where it was first brought to the notice of Dr. Torrey. Later in the season the same species was also found by Mr. Peck, in a peat marsh near Sand Lake in the vicinity of Albany, N.Y. Subsequently Mrs. Millington collected and transmitted numerous specimens in different stages of growth, from the original locality in Warren Co., N. Y., to Dr. Engelmann of St. Louis, who has been engaged for some time, in working up a monograph of the North American Species of Arceuthobium. For the benefit of future explorers of the botany of this northern district, I cannot do better than indicate the exact locality of this interesting plant as first pointed out by Mrs. Millington, viz. :— About two miles north of Warrensburg, Warren Co., N. Y., following the plank road leading to Chester, you pass on the right hand (east) of the road, an extensive marshy track, which on penetrating a narrow belt of timber, opens up into a wide sphagnous swamp occupied with occasional clumps of Samarack, and bordered by low stunted growths of black spruce (Abies nigra). Here the plant in question may be found without difficulty, the first indication of its presence being observable in distorted branches showing at their extremity a massed growth of finely divided spray, having a somewhat faded foliage. These masses will, on closer inspection, reveal the minute parasite, occupying the upper or thrifty growing branches. Of other points worthy of mention, I may note briefly. 1st. The period of flowering (different from most other species of the genus) is in spring. At the time of my visit, May 14th, the male blossoms were fully opened and the pollen mostly shed; the female flowers also well developed. 2d. As far as my observation goes, the plant is strictly dicecious, males and females occupying separate trees: not even occurring on different branches of the same tree. The male plants seem to be most frequent, though female plants are not rare. 3d. The parasitic growth, whether male or female, seems to persist on the same branch extending upwards, year by year on the thrifty growing branches; leaving only the scars of previous growths on the lower portions of the limb; the distortion being evidently due to this cause. 4th. Neither male nor female plants persist beyond the period of flowering, or perfecting their seed, after which the minute shoots (seldom an inch in length and very rarely branched) drop off, leaving a persistent cup-shaped base. The technical characters of this species will be fully developed in Dr. Engelmann's forthcoming monograph of the genus. ON THE WYANDOTTE CAVE AND ITS FAUNA. BY PROF. E. D. COPE. ana. THE Wyandotte Cave traverses the St. Louis Limestone of the carboniferous formation in Crawford County in south western IndiI do not know whether its length has ever been accurately determined, but the proprietors say that they have explored its galleries for twenty-two miles, and it is probable that its extent is equal to that of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Numerous galleries which diverge from its known courses in all directions have been left unexplored. The readers of the NATURALIST have freshly in their memories the interesting papers of Messrs. Packard and Putnam on the fauna of the Mammoth Cave and related species. The writer accompanied the excursion so pleasantly described in the NATURALIST, and obtained most of the species there enumerated as well as two or three additional ones which will be mentioned at the close of this article. On returning to Indianapolis at the request of Prof. E. T. Cox, state Geologist of Indiana, I made an examination of the Wyandotte Cave, so far as two days' exploration could be called such. Having prepared my report, I present a portion of it, by permission of Prof. Cox, to the NATURALIST. The The Wyandotte Cave is as well worthy of popular favor as the Mammoth. It lacks the large bodies of water which diversify the scene in the latter, but is fully equal to it in the beauty of its stalactites and other ornaments of calcite and gypsum. stalactites and stalagmites are more numerous than in the Mammoth, and the former frequently have a worm or maccaroni-like form, which is very peculiar. They twist and wind in masses like the locks of Medusa, and often extend in slender runners to a reremarkable length. The gypsum rosettes occur in the remote regions of the cave and are very beautiful. There are also masses of amorphous gypsum of much purity. The floor in many places is covered with curved branches, and, what is more beautiful, of perfectly transparent acicular crystals, sometimes mingled with imperfect twin-crystals. The loose crystals in one place are in such quantity as to give the name of "Snow Banks" to it. In other places it takes the form of japanning on the roof and wall rock. In one respect the cave is superior to the Mammoth-in its vast rooms, with step-like domes, and often huge stalagmites on central hills. In these localities the rock has been originally more fractured or fragile than elsewhere, and has given way at times of disturbance, piling masses on the floor. The destruction having reached the thin-bedded strata above, the breaking down has proceeded with greater rapidity, each bed breaking away over a narrower area than that below it. When the heavily-bedded rock has been again reached, the breakage has ceased, and the stratum remains as a heavy coping stone to the hollow dome. Of course the process piles a hill beneath, and the access of water being rendered more easy by the approach to the surface, great stalactites and stalagmites are the result. In one place this product forms a mass extending from floor to ceiling, a distance of thirty or forty feet, with a diameter of twenty-five feet, and a beautifully fluted circumference. The walls of the room are encrusted with cataract-like masses, and stalagmites are numerous. The largest room is stated to be 245 feet high and 350 feet long, and to contain a hill of 175 feet in height. On the summit are three large stalagmites, one of them pure white. When this scene is lit up, it is peculiarly grand to the view of the observer at the foot of the long hill, while it is not less beautiful to those on the summit. There is no room in the Mammoth Cave equal to these two. I must not omit to mention the kind attention to the wants of his guests constantly displayed by Mr. Conrad, the present proprietor of the hotel, and the equally useful guidance of Mr. Rothrock, the owner of the cave. Visitors will also find on their way thither an American Auerbach's hotel at Leavenworth, near the steamboat landing. This excellent house is not haunted, like its European predecessor at Leipsic, by either a Mephistophiles or a Faust, but by a landlord (Mr. Humphreys), whose charges are low, and whose wife knows how, in lodgings and table, to satisfy reasonably fastidious persons. An examination into the life of the cave shows it to have much resemblance to that of the Mammoth. The following is a list of sixteen species of animals which I obtained, and by its side is placed a corresponding list of the species obtained by Mr. Cooke and others at the Mammoth Cave. These number seventeen species. As the Mammoth has been more frequently explored, while two days only were devoted to the Wyandotte, the large number of species obtained in the latter, suggests that it is the richer in life. This I suspect will prove to be the case, as it is situated in a fertile region. Some of the animals were also procured from caves immediately adjoining, which are no doubt connected with the principal one. Of the out-door fauna which find shelter in the cave, bats are of course most numerous. They are probably followed into their retreat by the eagle and other large owls. The floors of some of the chambers were covered to a considerable depth by the castings of these birds, which consisted of bats' fur and bones. It would be worth while to determine whether any of the owls winter there. I believe that wild animals betake themselves to caves to die, and that this habit accounts in large part for the great collections of skeletons found in the cave deposits of the world. After much experience in wood craft, I may say that I never found the bones of a wild animal which had not died by the hand of man, lying exposed in the forest. I once thought I had found the place where a turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) had closed its career, on the edge of a wood, and it seemed that no accident could have killed it, the bones were so entire as I gathered them up one by one. At last I raised the slender radius; it was broken, and the only injured bone. I tilted each half of the shaft, and from one rolled a single shot! The hand of man had been there. One occasionally finds a mole (Scalops or Condylura) overcome by the sun on some naked spot, on his midday exploration, but if we seek for animals generally, we must go to the caves. In Virginia I found remains of very many species in a recent state; in a cave adjoining the Wyandotte I found the skeleton of the gray fox Vulpes Virginianus. In a cavern in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, in an agricultural region, I noticed bones of five or six Cistudines, as many rabbits, and a few other wild species, with dog, horse, cattle, sheep, etc., some of which had fallen in. |