328 Journal of Travel and Natural Hi si or y 



Denver region to the latest Cretaceous or oldest tertiary ; but being in either 

 case older than those of the Missouri, or Great Lignite beds of Dr Hayden, 

 which are probably Miocene, and which thus continue the sequence as far norlli 

 as observations have been made." — (P. 65.) 



Mode of Capturing Hsemonia Equiseti. — The following in- 

 cidental notice of the mode of securing good and early specimens of species of 

 Hffimonia and Donacia, is from Dr Marmottan's account of the excursion of the 

 Entomological Society of France into the Vosges and Alsace, in 1866 : — " We 

 did not wish to leave Strasburg without taking the Hasmonia equiseti, a species 

 which is not rare, but which the singularity of its ways makes it difficult to find 

 With our colleague M. Gerber, and the pastor Blind, who was kind enough to 

 act as our guide, we got into a small boat and left the town, going up the course 

 of the 111. About two kilometres from Strasburg we fell into the true fluvial 

 meadows, composed of Potamogeton natans and fluitans. Formed of long 

 slender and .flexible blades, which come to the surface of the water to bloom, 

 these plants thrust into the bed of the river claws or roots, which sustain them 

 firmly and prevent them from being dragged away by the current. It is these 

 roots, in the form of claws, which it is indispensable to have, because it is there 

 that the Ha;monia is found. It is necessary to arm one's self with patience and 

 courage, because it is not an easy thing to procure the Potamogeton 

 with its roots ; the stalks are so very brittle, that the plant is broken before 

 you can disengage the claws, and you only bring to the surface the leaves of the 

 plant, which are entirely useless. It is necessary to plunge one's arm as deep 

 as possible into the river, seize a bundle of stalks and pull them gently, giving 

 them slight shocks. When you are fortunate enough to get a plant with its 

 stalks and roots complete, you find agglomerated around the latter little groups 

 of cocoons, of a reddish brown, exactly like the pupse of the Diptera ; these 

 are the cocoons of the Hasmonia. On opening these impermeable envelopes, 

 you find the insect surrounded with a slight envelope of air. It was a little too 

 soon to make such a hunt, so we only found a few perfect insects ; the gi-eater part 

 of the cocoons only contained chrysalids. Other cocoons, exactly like those of 

 the Hsemonia, but larger, and adhering equally to the claws of the Potamogeton, 

 contained the Donacia bidens." — Annal. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1867, p. 671. 



"White Mammals. — Does any white mammal exist wild any^vliere 

 except in Arctic or Boreal regions ? Dr J. E. Gray has lately described a 

 white marmoset as a new species. It is in the Zoological Society's Gardens, 

 Regent's Park, and has been received from tropical South America. To all 

 appearance it differs in no respect from the common marmoset except in colour. 

 It was suggested that it might be an albino, but the eyes are not red but hazel, 

 and Dr Gray regards it as a distinct species. Red eyes, however, are not an 

 invariable concomitant of alljinism. In domestication, white varieties (as of 

 horses, dogs, &c. ), without red eyes, are common, and the same may occur 

 with wild species ; but we do not remember to have heard or read of any entirely 

 white mammal from the tropical or temperate regions, while varieties or albinos 

 of other species do occur. 



