228 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



everywhere ; there were four nests in the house, constructed of white 

 blankets cut up to suit while huckaback towels cut into cotton rags, 

 curtains, books, carpets, clothes, cartridges, pictures, work-baskets, 

 groceries, wheat, cutlery, children's toys, cactus, bones of deer, dried 

 cow dung, dolls' tea-sets, about ioo empty tins and 5000 prunestones, 

 carefully brought a distance of sixty yards from the rubbish hole. I have 

 not enumerated half the things in those nests but only a few that occur 

 to me. In conclusion, I may say that the Bushy-tailed rat evidently 

 considers that he owns any house in which he takes up his abode ; for 

 him any human intruder is the only part of the fnrniture to be avoided ; 

 but if cornered and brought to bay, he will not avoid even man but 

 will act on the defensive and die fighting like a tiger. 



NOTES, REVIEWS AND COMMENTS. 



Geology : Dawson, Sir William. The animal nature of 

 Eozoon, Geological Magazine, Oct., Nov. and Dec. 1895. 17 pp. with 

 eight illustrations. 



This is a " review of the evidence for the animal nature of Eozoon 

 Canadense." Few are the geological subjects which have attracted 

 more attention or have been discussed more freely than the question as 

 to the animal nature of Eozoon. The purport of the present paper is 

 to correct "some misapprehensions" which as Sir William says "seem 

 to have arisen in regard to points well established and which independ- 

 ently of any question as to the nature of Eozoon, belong to the certain 

 data of geology." Protest is also made " against that mode of treating 

 ancient fossils which regards the most obscured or defaced specimens 

 as typical." This contribution is divided into three parts : 



1. Historical and stratigraphical. 2. Petrographical and chemical. 

 3. Structural and Biological. 



In reviewing the evidence adduced during the last thirty seven years 

 Sir William says: " I confess that in the intervening time I have seen no 

 good reason to induce me to doubt the essential validity of the work 



