NATURAL SCIENCES OF PniLADELPHIA. 11 



SOUBX ODORATUS. 



Dark cinereous brown above inclining to chestnut, beneath slightly paler. 

 Snout proboscidal, deeply emarginate at the point, and furrowed on the under 

 side. Ears large, naked, with two rather large lobes within, the lower one of 

 which appears to be the antitragus ; tail long, triangular. 



Length 5 inches ; head 1-G5 ; tail 2-6 ; ears -2. 



This species has a very strong musky odor. 



SCIURUS SUBVIRIDESCENS. 



Above black, the hair tipped with pale brown, in some positions appearing 

 greenish; beneath pale yellowish cinereous; tail longer tban the body, of the 

 same colors above and beneath, and tipped with black, not distichous. Head 

 small. Ears rounded and very short, not tufted. 



Length 6-7 in. ; tail 1-b in. ; head 1-5 in. ; ears "3. 



SciURUS LEMNISCATU8. 



Above on the head, upper part of the back and legs rufous brown, mixed 

 with darker and black. The back with four black stripes from the shoulders to 

 the hinder parts of the body and two stripes of yellowish, Avith one of rufous 

 (this last sometimes quite indistinct) down the middle of the back. Hair of the 

 head annulate with black, of the sides dark cinereous tipped with pale rufous. 

 Under side of the head, body and legs white. Head roundish : nose pointed ; 

 lower fore teeth slender; ears small round. Tail distichous. 



Varies in having the paler stripes scai'cely apparent. 



Length 7-5 in. ; tail G-5 in. 



SCIDRUS RUFOBRACeiATCS. 



Louis Eraser, Zoologia typica No. 24 ; Waterhouse, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1 842, p. 1 28. 



This animal is figured in Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North 

 America, under the name of Spermophilus annulatus. The specimen described 

 by Dr. Bachman was purchased in New York from a dealer in preserved birds. 

 It is by no means a native of our continent. 



SCIURUS PUMILIO. 



Hair short and soft, dark cinereous, tipped with reddish brown, on the throat 

 and belly with much paler. Head short roundish ; ears small ; tail shorter than 

 the body, distichous ; hair reddish brown at base and tip, black in the middle, 

 appearing by this disposition of colors to be edged with brown ; four of the toes 

 on each foot equal. 



Length 5-4 ; head -I . ear -2 ; tail 2-3 ; fore leg -9 ; hind leg 1-5. 



ALUMINIUM. 



The progress in its manufacture. 



BY W. J. TAYLOR. 



The use of sodium in the reduction of metals from their chlorides, as has been 

 so successfully accomplished within the last two years, may be justly considered 

 a great progressive step in science. 



Aluminium has been the first in which this process has been perfected. What 

 the other metals are which will be reduced successfully from their chlorides by 

 the use of sodium, the future will determine. Some facts concerning the early 

 history of aluminium, the progress made in its manufacture, and the numerous 

 uses to which it can be applied, will not be uninteresting. 



Much confusion existed in the minds of the early alchymists regarding the 

 oxide alumina. They knew of an alum which was brought from the East, which 

 they regarded for a long time as sulphuric acid combined with an earth. Stahl 

 and others also mistook this earth for lime. Geoffroy, in 1728, pointed out its 

 existence in clay; Marggraff, in 1754, proved it to be a substance having a sepa- 



1857.] 



