1909] The Ottawa Naturalist. 23 



some of the fragments, which must have formed part of as large 

 specimens as the larger of them, are conspicuously septate. 



The eight fragments are pieces of the anterior end of the coil 

 of large casts of the septate portion of the shell, which not only- 

 give clear evidence of septation, but also show the outline of a 

 transverse section of the coil, with the emargination caused by the 

 contact furrow on the dorsum. 



The species indicated by these specimens may be provision- 

 ally named and described as follows : 



StEPHEOCERAS NiCOLENSE, SP. NOV. 



Shell very large, with rounded whorls, and a wide and open 

 umbilicus. Whorls nearly circular in transverse section anter- 

 iorly but concavely emarginate on the dorsum by a well defined 

 longitudinal furrow of contact. They increase rather slowly in 

 thickness, the earlier ones being quite slender, but thev ultimately 

 become robust and strongly^convex. Their number appears to be 

 about five or six, but only four are visible in the largest specimen 

 known to the writer, the earlier whorls being either not preserved 

 or covered with the matrix. 



Umbilicus occupying considerably more than one half of the 

 entire diameter, fully one half of each of the inner whorls being 

 exposed. 



Test unknown; surface of the cast everywhere strongly and 

 regularly ribbed, the ribs being straight, transverse, and much 

 narrower than the concave grooves between them. On the outer 

 whorl each rib trifurcates from a low and obscurely defined tub- 

 ercle on the umbilical margin. As thus divided, the three ribs in 

 each set pass uninterruptedly over the venter, and reunite at a 

 corresponding tubercle on the umbilical margin of the opposite 

 side. 



Body chamber, and finer details of the sutural line unknown. 



HOW THE ENGLISH SPARROW IS ADAPTING ITSELF 

 TO NEW CONDITIONS OF LIFE. 



By Norman Griddle, Treesbank, Man. 

 The English, or House Sparrow, was introduced into the 

 United States in the early fifties of last century and into eastern 

 Canada in 1854. Probably but few colonies were started in the 

 Dominion, but in the United States small lots were liberated in 

 many of the larger cities, both on the coast and inland. As a 

 result of those early introductions. House Sparrows are now 

 to be found in nearly every portion of the continent. It is 

 uncertain when the first individuals invaded Manitoba. They 



