ter, where they can bury themselves a certain distance into the mud. There they knot themselves together, forming an enormous mass constantly in motion, the result of which is that the mucus becomes detached from them, and this, after a time, is found to swarm with myriads of little eels.—3 B, May 13, 1875, 79. FOSSIL LEPIDOSTEUS. Professor Gervais announces the discovery, among other fossils of the Paris Basin, of a species of true Lepidosteusa genus of fishes now found living only in North America. He had previously made this suggestion, but somewhat doubtfully, and it is only quite recently that he has ascertained to his satisfaction that the species belonged where he had assigned it.-6 B, October 12, 1874, 846. REPRODUCTIVE SEASON OF THE COD ON THE FAROE ISLANDS. In a notice of the fisheries of the Faroe Islands, in the Revue Maritime et Coloniale for March, 1874, a fact is stated in regard to the natural history of the cod-fish which seems to require confirmation. According to this account, the codfish is, as may be supposed, the most important element in the fisheries, and those taken at the beginning of the year are said to be large and fat; and the time is also better fitted for drying them than at other seasons, as the air is then pure and cold. Their average weight when taken, after the head, entrails, and backbone are removed, is from twelve to thirty pounds. The cod is also very good during the months of March and April, but after this it becomes poor. It enters the harbors in May for the purpose of spawning, and is taken in great numbers in the summer. Cod, however, which remain in the open sea, on the Banks, are good throughout the year. The point of inquiry is as to the spawning of the cod in May, as Steenstrup has shown that on the coast of Norway they spawn in the winter season.-Revue Maritime et Coloniale, March, 1874, 762. SOFTNESS OF BONES IN OLD CONGERS. M. Camille Dareste (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sc., Nov. 3, 1874) has confirmed in quite a number of individuals the fact that conger-eels not infrequently attain full size without World, exhibiting certain variations, it is true, but none of a specific value. The other species, which he considers as belonging to this genus, are the A. marmorata and the A. mowa of the Indian seas, and the A. megalostoma of Oceanica. Of the genus Conger he allows but four species; namely, the C. vulgaris, balearicus, mystax, and acutidens, the first two of which he regards as cosmopolite, and found simultaneously in almost all waters. The variations in the external appearance of the true eel he thinks are produced in large measure by peculiarities of the ossification of the bones. In some the bones are in a cartilaginous or rachitic state, from which results a shortening of the jaws, or other deformations that produce a special impression upon the external appearance of the animal. Other variations are produced in both the conger and the true eel by the extent of albinism and melanism, special features appearing in each.—6 B, November 2, 1874, 988. LARGEST PIKE EVER TAKEN IN ENGLAND. Mr. Buckland, in Land and Water, acknowledges the receipt of what he considers to be the largest pike ever taken in England, weighing thirty-five pounds, and measuring three feet ten and a half inches in length. From the best evidence he could gather, this was one of the survivors of a small number of pike, weighing about one pound and a half each, which were placed in Ripley Lake some twelve years ago. The roe weighed three and a half pounds, and contained over 43,000 eggs.-2 A, October 24, 1874, 320. HABITS OF EELS. In view of the many points that still remain to be ascertained in regard to the life history of the eel, a recent communication published in Les Mondes may not be without its interest, however doubtful some of its statements may be. According to the writer, M. E. Noel, a certain fish- warden near Rouen, has observed that at about the end of September the large eels leave the sources of all the rivers and descend toward the salt water, at which time they are covered with a much thicker coat of muddy mucus than usual. They do not go down entirely to the sea, but stop in brackish wa ter, where they can bury themselves a certain distance into the mud. There they knot themselves together, forming an enormous mass constantly in motion, the result of which is that the mucus becomes detached from them, and this, after a time, is found to swarm with myriads of little eels.—3 B, May 13, 1875, 79. FOSSIL LEPIDOSTEUS. Professor Gervais announces the discovery, among other fossils of the Paris Basin, of a species of true Lepidosteus— a genus of fishes now found living only in North America. He had previously made this suggestion, but somewhat doubtfully, and it is only quite recently that he has ascertained to his satisfaction that the species belonged where he had assigned it.-6 B, October 12, 1874, 846. REPRODUCTIVE SEASON OF THE COD ON THE FAROE ISLANDS. In a notice of the fisheries of the Faroe Islands, in the Revue Maritime et Coloniale for March, 1874, a fact is stated in regard to the natural history of the cod-fish which seems to require confirmation. According to this account, the codfish is, as may be supposed, the most important element in the fisheries, and those taken at the beginning of the year are said to be large and fat; and the time is also better fitted for drying them than at other seasons, as the air is then pure and cold. Their average weight when taken, after the head, entrails, and backbone are removed, is from twelve to thirty pounds. The cod is also very good during the months of March and April, but after this it becomes poor. It enters the harbors in May for the purpose of spawning, and is taken in great numbers in the summer. Cod, however, which remain in the open sea, on the Banks, are good throughout the year. The point of inquiry is as to the spawning of the cod in May, as Steenstrup has shown that on the coast of Norway they spawn in the winter season.-Revue Maritime et Coloniale, March, 1874, 762. SOFTNESS OF BONES IN OLD CONGERS. M. Camille Dareste (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sc., Nov. 3, 1874) has confirmed in quite a number of individuals the fact that conger-eels not infrequently attain full size without a complete ossification of the bones, the skeleton remaining in a more or less cartilaginous state. LEPTOCEPHALI ARE LARVAL FORMS OF CONGERS, ETC. Some years ago Dr. Theodore Gill pointed out, what had not previously been even suspected, that the remarkable transparent and elongated ribbon-like fishes, attaining a length of several inches, and known as Leptocephali, were really immature or larval forms of congers and related types. This discovery, although received with some skepticism for a short time, has been since universally recognized by European and other naturalists. The observations of M. Dareste may be co-ordinated with the previous ones, and find an explanation for the raison d'être in occasional persistence to a still more advanced stage or throughout life of some characteris tics which are normally in these forms protracted through a considerable term of the early life of the fish. While the incompleteness of ossification is persistent, however, the form and most other characteristics of the normal adult congers are attained, the only other known arrest of development af fecting the teeth, which do not attain the customary size. HAVE JELLY-FISHES A NERVOUS SYSTEM? The umbrella-shaped jelly-like organisms known as jellyfishes, or acalephs, which are almost always to be seen floating near the surface of the sea, are, next to the so-called Protozoans, the simplest forms of animal life, and the existence of a nervous system has been regarded as extremely problematical, and, indeed, denied by most authors. At the base of the tentacles, which originate at equal distances from the margins of the umbrella-like disk, or "rectocalyx," however, there are minute vesicular-like bodies (called marginal vesicles), which have been supposed by some zoologists (e.g., Agassiz, M'Crady, and Fritz Müller) to be the rudiments of a nervous system. This supposition has received much support, recently, from vivisectional experiments made by Mr. George J. Romanes. Mr. Romanes's observations were made on the acaleph known as Slabberia conica, a species about as large as an acorn, and, as the specific name implies, having a conic rectocalyx, from whose margin four tentacles originate; at the bases of these tentacles are vesicles smaller than the dot which surmounts this i; small as these are, however, they appear to be so important to the animal economy that their excision paralyzes and renders inert the segment from which they are abstracted, and yet, although all that may be isolated from them is deprived of motility, the portions left connected with them preserve that function; thus, all but the margin may be cut away, and all such exsection will be rendered inactive, but the margin itself, retaining these vesicles, will still manifest, for an indefinite length of time, its contractile powers. Some of these facts (e. g., the paralysis of the rectocalyx deprived of its margin) have been known before, but have been explained by the hypothesis that the severance of all the contractile fibres produces a kind of mechanical paralysis, analogous, for example, to disability to use the arms if all the muscles were divided. This explanation does not entirely account for all the manifestations exhibited in the experiments in question, and there is at least a strong probability that the minute dots referred to have a true nervous function. SCUDDER ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE GENUS PAMPHILA. A paper has just been published by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, in the Memoirs of the Boston Natural History Society, on the butterflies of the genus Pamphila, in which, after a critical comparison of American and European forms, he comes to the conclusion that, after all, there is no difficulty in distinguishing the common species of Europe from its nearest American relatives. Of American forms he describes eight species, three of them in this work for the first time. HABITS OF BEES, WASPS, AND ANTS. Sir John Lubbock has recently presented to the Linnæan. Society of London some very interesting notes on the habits of bees, wasps, and ants, drawn from his personal observation. The results seem to negative the idea popularly entertained that bees have the power of communicating intelligence from one to another; also that the working bees have any affection for one another, or for the queen bee independently of the utility of the latter for producing new broods. Bees have a decided taste in color, distinctly preferring blue to orange. Wasps are (Dr. Watts notwithstanding) of more |