G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 247 



the animal have been found which had been apparently 

 pierced by an arrow or some similar weapon. To the new 

 form has been assigned the name of Crassitherium robustum, 

 in allusion to the thick walls of the skull, in which respect it 

 is very different from any of its allies, but more like the 

 Rhytina, or sea-cow of Steller., from Behring Island. This 

 latter animal, unlike the Halitherium, has been exterminated 

 within the historic period, although it is more than one hun- 

 dred years since it has been seen alive by any one. Accord- 

 ing to Professor Van Beneden, there have been found in the 

 Antwerp Sands four genera of seals, one of Zeuglodonts, and 

 the form just referred to. Bulletin Acad. Hoy ale des Scien- 

 ces de Belgique, 1871,164. 



NEW HUMPBACKED WHALE IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA, ETC. 



The cranium of a humpback whale, from the Caribbean 

 Sea, has been recently sent to the Academy of Sciences, Phil- 

 adelphia, and Professor Cope, after a careful examination, 

 recognizes it as a new species, which he names Megaptera 

 bellicosa. At the same meeting he exhibited portions of the 

 fossil skeleton of a large crocodile from the green sand of 

 New Jersey, which he called Holops pneumaticus, from the 

 hollow condition of the bones of the limbs. 2 B, January 

 23,1872. 



NEW WHALE IN CALIFORNIA. 



Professor Cope has announced the existence in California 

 of an extinct species of whale, as shown by a fragment of a 

 jaw found in digging a well at San Diego. This he names 

 JEschrichtius davidsonii. 2 D, February 27, 1872. 



AMERICAN BIRDS IN EUROPE. 



A remarkable fact connected with the interchange of ani- 

 mal species between Europe and America is seen in the fre- 

 quency with which North American birds occur in England, 

 and the scarcity of European birds in America. Nearly sev- 

 enty species of the birds characteristic of the American fauna 

 have so far been detected in Great Britain, the latest an- 

 nouncement of this kind being that of the black-billed cuckoo, 

 which was taken at the end of September, 1871, in Antrim, 

 ten miles from Belfast. Very few of the European land-birds 



