124 General Notes. 



THE rSE OF EPIMYS IX A GENERIC REXSE. 



In his recent paper on the fienus name of the rats (Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 AVashington, Vol. XXIII, p. o7) Mr. G. S. Miller appears to be under 

 the impression that he is the first to recuscitate Dr. Trouessart'ssubgeneric 

 name Epiniys and to employ it in a treneric sense. This, however, is not 

 the case, for Dr. K. A. Satunin employed the name Epimys norwegicus 

 for the brown rat on pages 19 and 71 of a paper in Vol. IV of Mitteilungen 

 des Kaukasischen Museums, Tifiis, 1908. I may add that if it is considered 

 necessary to separate the rats from the mice under a distinct name, in 

 my opinion subgeiieric rank is sutHcient; so that we should have JIiis 

 (Epimys) norvegicus and M. (E.) rattus, as originally proposed by 

 Trouessart. 



— 7'. LydeJcker. 



IXCUBATIOX PERIOD OF BOX-TURTLE EGGS. 



So few data have been published on the sul)ject, that it seems advisable 

 to record the following observations: A box-turtle {Terrapene Carolina) 

 was found June 10, 1908, depositing its eggs on the south side of a higli 

 dry knoll at Viresco, Ya. The eggs had not hatched August 2'^, but on 

 August 20 the young had dug their way to the surface and left behind 

 them the fragments of the shells. The period of incubation was therefore 

 70-72 days. 



— Wells W. Cooke. 



