256 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



sonal inconvenience or injury. This same immunity from 

 harm would seem to exist in other countries, as a late writer 

 in the London Field remarks upon the fondness of the pigs in 

 India for the cobra de capello, and states that he has repeat- 

 edly seen them in conflict, and has observed the pig to be bit- 

 ten over and over again in the snout and about the face by 

 the writhing reptile, and in no instance with the slightest ill 

 result to the aggressor. 1 9 A, November 4,1871,391. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS IN 1870. 



The October number of The Ibis, a quarterly journal of or- 

 nithology published in London, contains a summary of the 

 progress of ornithological science for 1870, enumerating the 

 names of writers upon this subject, with the titles of their 

 publications. The total number of such authors mentioned 

 in the list is 164, while the number of separate works and of 

 papers (in scientific memoirs, transactions, proceedings, etc.) 

 reaches 316. Strange to say, only 22 new genera have been 

 adopted, although 288 have been proposed. Figures of 270 

 species, together with numerous plates illustrating the anat- 

 omy, the nests, and the eggs, have appeared. Due prominence 

 and full credit are given to the comparatively small number 

 of American writers whose names appear in the list. Ibis, 

 October, 1871. 



TRANSPORTING LIVING ENGLISH SPARROWS. 



A great demand for the English sparrow in various parts 

 of the United States has induced their importation from En- 

 gland and Germany in large numbers, but in many instances, 

 where this has been done in large cages, most of the birds 

 have died on the passage. In one instance in our recollec- 

 tion, where four hundred were placed in two cages, only sev- 

 en were safely landed in New York. Persons who have given 

 this subject their attention advise that the importations be 

 made in long low cages, known as store cages, which are two 

 or three feet long, about nine inches high, and twelve from 

 back to front, with perches within two inches of the bottom. 

 In a cage of this kind three or four dozen can, it is said, be 

 readily transported, provided they be supplied with proper 

 food, as well as with sand, and fine gravel, and plenty of wa- 

 ter. 2 A.June 3,1871,393. 



