242 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



BELGIAN BATS AND THEIR PAEASITES. 



Professor P. J. van Beneden, in a memoir upon the bats of 

 Belgium and their parasites, calls attention to the very great 

 interest of such researches as he has been prosecuting. These 

 animals have less relationship to man than almost any other 

 mammal, and are under the absolute rule of natural selection. 

 The entire group have the same insectivorous nutriment, and 

 they are entirely dependent upon variations in the atmos- 

 phere for their food more so than any other animal. 



The question now arises how the insectivorous mammals, 

 living first with the mammoths, and bears, and reindeer be- 

 fore the glacial epoch, have been able to pass that period 

 without disappearing entirely, and the suggestion is raised as 

 to whether it was possible for them to enjoy a hibernation 

 of ages as well as that of a single season. 



The professor sums up a series of inquiries in regard to the 

 entozoa of the bats as follows : First, that the cheiroptera 

 nourish parasites as well as the other mammals ; second, that 

 these parasites belong to a special group and series; third, 

 that the order of the cheiroptera can be determined by the 

 contents of their intestines; fourth, that the ascarides, so com- 

 mon in other mammalia, are entirely wanting in the bats ; 

 fifth, that all their parasites, as far as at present known, be- 

 long to the group of nostosites ; sixth, that their xenosites 

 are individuals which have strayed away from their natural 

 habitation ; seventh, that bats nourish the same parasites 

 throughout the year; eighth, that the period of hibernation 

 has its effect upon their worms as well as upon their numer- 

 ous ascarides. The term nostosites is one derived by the pro- 

 fessor not long ago to include entozoa that have reached their 

 final destination and are not liable to any farther transforma- 

 tion ; and the xenosites are forms which are in a transition 

 state, and able to develop into something different when the 

 external circumstances are changed. Bull. Acad. Hoyale de 

 Belgique, 1872, III, 223. 



NEW AMERICAN MASTODON. 



Among some collections of specimens of natural history 

 and ethnology lately presented by Governor W. M. F. Amy, 

 of New Mexico, to the Smithsonian Institution, were some 



