186 March, 1847.] 



yard as to induce many persona to discard them. In the figure 

 of these birds, their heads, and the size and appearance of 

 their legs and feet, there is a greater resemblance to the turkey 

 than to the dung-hill fowl, the only other bird a cross like the 

 present could be traced to. One habit they had peculiar to 

 the turkey, that of erecting the feathers on the back of the neck. 

 The plumage of these birds also partakes somewhat of the pecu- 

 liarities of that of the turkey, though curiously blended with 

 that of the pintado. 



In a poultry yard we always find the guinea fowls masters 

 of the place, in which peculiarity our hen shared, boldly attack- 

 ing any who offended her, and readily putting the cocks to flight. 

 This latter circumstance seems to negative the probability of the 

 cross we are examining being with the latter fowl. 



We consider ourselves further confirmed in supposing the 

 turkey before alluded to, to be the father of these hybirds, from 

 the face that he was the only male turkey then in the poultry 

 yard, and very close attentions were noticed between him and 

 the hen, which were fully reciprocated on her part, though the 

 act of sexual intercourse escaped our observation." 



Professor Johnson offered some observations on the cellu- 

 lose of the Borneo Palm, and its reaction with Nitric and 

 Sulphuric acids, bywhich it was apparently converted into 

 Zyloidine, and not into Pyroxiline. 



The Curators exhibited a mass of minute black insects, 

 "(Acari?) which had been received from the Rev. James H. 

 McFarland, of Reading, Pa., by whom they had been collected 

 on the Broad mountain, ''near the Summit Coal mines, Schuyl- 

 kill county, Pa, on the 28th of December last. The snow for a 

 quarter of a mile along the road was covered to blackness 

 with these insects, and heaps from which a peck could have 

 been collected, were frequent on the road. The day was 

 warm for the season. A few more were obtained on a sub- 

 sequent day, during a fall of snow. 



