AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 811 



spider, confirms the observations of others as to the creature deliber- 

 ately attaching fragments of moss to the lid of its nest in order to 

 conceal its position. Dr. Thomas Meehan* describes a hornet that 

 was gifted with great intelligence. He saw this insect struggling with 

 a large locust in unsuccessful attempts to fly away with it. After 

 several fruitless efforts to fly up from the ground with his victim, he 

 finally dragged it fully thirty feet to a tree, to the top of which he 

 laboriously ascended, still clinging to his burden, and having attained 

 this elevated position he flew off in a horizontal direction with the locust. 

 Dr. Meehan truly says, " There was more than instinct in this act, 

 there was reasoning on certain facts and judgment accordingly, and 

 the insect's judgment had proved correct." 



A curious case of circumspection in ants is recorded by Dr. Joseph 

 Leidy.f In an empty house he observed some ants feeding on crumbs 

 of bread left by the workman. He at once placed pieces of bread in 

 the different rooms in the house only to find them the next day cov- 

 ered with ants, which he destroyed by causing them to fall into a dish 

 of turpentine. After a few days the ants no longer visited the bread, 

 and he supposed they had been exterminated. A few days after, how- 

 ever, he observed a number of ants in the attic feeding on the body of 

 a dead fly. He immediately got a lot of grasshoppers and distributed 

 their bodies in all the rooms, only to find that they were soon covered 

 with ants, which he destroyed as before. This treat continued attract- 

 ive for a few days only, when the ants abandoned the food. In 

 brief, he tried meat, cake, and various other articles in turn ; the ants 

 for a while frequenting these snares, only to learn the danger involved, 

 and finally avoided them. 



The gradual dispersion of species in recent times is of great in- 

 terest, and careful records should be made of the facts as observed 

 and" a collection of large numbers of individuals made, in order to 

 compare them with specimens of the same species in future years, to 

 ascertain the variation which may have taken place and the tendency 

 of that variation. A number of observatians have been published 

 within the last ten years, showing new areas of distribution. Littorina 

 litorea, which has been creeping along the coast since 1869, as recorded 

 by Gray, Verrill, and others, has now reached the southern side of 

 Long Island Sound, as observed by Mr. Henry Prime. J Lioplax sub- 

 carinata, an Ohio River species, has been found in the Hudson River 

 at Catskill Landing. Limax maximus, first found at Newport, Rhode 

 Islan d, by Mr. Powel, has since been found at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 by Professor Hyatt. Bythinia tentaculata, first recorded from Oswego, 

 New York, by Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, * is reported as having been 

 found at Burlington, Vermont, by G. H. Hudson. In the Mohawk 



* "Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences," 1878, p. 15. 



f " American Journal of Science and Arts," vol. xv, p. 320. 



\ " American Naturalist," vol. xvi, p. 737. tt Ibid., vol. xiv, p. 523. 



