G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 339 



the southern portions of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, with 

 numerous fragments of a species of barnacle attached to the 

 abdominal feathers. It is supposable, therefore, that the larvae 

 attached themselves to these birds, which swim along the 

 surface of the water, and dive after their food, instead of fix- 

 ing themselves on inanimate objects, and that they are thus 

 also, most probably, best preserved from the attacks of other 

 marine animals. Upon closer investigation the very inter- 

 esting and unexpected discovery was made by Professor 

 Tozzetti that these barnacles are of a new genus, character- 

 ized by a provision for the retention of moisture, without 

 which it would be impossible for them to survive so long a 

 removal from the water. 19 (7, September 12, 1874, 352. 



FOOD OF THE MASTODON. 



Dr. Hunt gives an account, in the Proceedings of the Bos- 

 ton Society of Natural History, of the contents of the stom- 

 ach of a mastodon lately found in Wayland, New York. 

 These consisted of remains of both cryptogams and flower- 

 ing plants, exhibiting distinctly the vegetable characters. 

 No sphagnum was found in the deposit. The evidence was 

 that the animal had eaten his last meal from the tender 

 mosses and boughs of the flowering plants growing on the 

 banks of streams and margins of swamps, and that pines and 

 cedars formed no part of his diet. Pr. Bost. Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 XVII.,1,92. 



DISCOVERY IN NEWFOUNDLAND OF BONES OF THE GEEAT AUK. 



According to Nature, some bones of the great auk have 

 lately been found in the Funk Islands, off the coast of New- 

 foundland, and carried to London. Unfortunately, however, 

 they are not in a very good state of preservation. It was 

 from this locality that two mummied auks were obtained 

 some years ago, furnishing complete skeletons. One of these 

 is in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, 

 and the other, we believe, was sent to the British Museum 

 in London. 12 A, January 24, 1875, 216. 



HABITS OF KINGFISHERS. 



Dr. C. C. Abbot, in Nature, combats Mr. Darwin's state- 

 ment that the kingfishers, having caught a fish, "always 



