I 



On the reproduction ofDornestic Animals. 155 



Observations by Phofessor Silliman. 



" In the month of June 1823, in company with a friend, I had just crossed 

 the Hudson River, from the town of CatskJll, and was proceeding in a 

 carriage, by the river along the road, which is here very narrow, with the 

 water on one side, and a steep bank covered with bushes on the other. 



*' Our attention was at this place arrested by a number of small birds of 

 different species flying across the road, and then back again, and turning 

 and wheeling in manifold gyrations, and with much chirping, yet making 

 no progress from the particular spot over which they fluttered. We were 

 not left long in doubt, when we perceived a black snake of considerable 

 size, partly coiled, and partly erect from the ground, with the appearance 

 of great animation, and his tongue rapidly and incessantly brandished. 

 This reptile we perceived to be the cause and the centre of the wild mo- 

 tions of the birds, which ceased as soon as the snake, alarmed by the ap- 

 proach of the carriage, retired into the bushes. The birds however, alighted 

 upon the neighbouring branches, probably awaiting the reappearance of 

 their tormentor and enemy. Our engagements did not permit us to wait 

 to see the issue of this affair, which seems to have been similar to that ob- 

 served by Mr Nash." — Silliman's Journal, June 1827. 



6. — Experiments on the reproduction of domestic^ animals. By Mr Ch. 

 GiRON de Buzareurgues, Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The experiments alluded to, and of which a brief notice was read to the 

 Academy on the 2d April 1827, had for their object to determine the 

 means by which in sheep the number of male or female lambs could be 

 diminished or increased, according to the wishes of the proprietor of the 

 flock. The experiment is stated by its author in this manner : to divide 

 ajlock of ewes into two equal parts, and to cause to be produced by one 

 half of the flock so divided a greater number of males or of females than 

 in the other, according to the choice of the proprietor. This object seems 

 to have been effected in the present instance by a selection of the ram or 

 male ; for it would appear, that, if the male be very young, there will be 

 produced more females than males ; and vice versa, that is, in order to 

 obtain a greater proportion of male Iambs to the females the ram must be 

 four or five years of age. — AnnaL des. Sc. Nat. 



7. — On the Esquimaux Beg. By J. G. Children, Esq. ■ 



From this brief notice by Mr Children on the Esquimaux dog, accom-' 

 panied by a very beautifully executed engraving, it would appear that 

 the editors of the splendid work on Zoology now publishing in France, 

 under the title of L'Histoire Naturelle des Mammifcres, have inadver- 

 tently committed a very great error. They have caused to be represented, 

 as a real specimen of the Esquimaux dog, a spurious issue, the product of 

 a cross breed between a male Newfoundland dog and the female of the 

 true Esquimaux race, which had been presented to the French naturalists 

 by Dr Leach. 



The error thus committed is stated to have been first pointed out by 



