118 



place for nesting, for the holes in dead pine trees, left by the past 

 year's woodpeckers, offer it a convenient retreat. The dead pine 

 trees therefore contribute to this bird's increase. 



The Robin stops here a little while in March on its way North, 

 and as this is the time when the grounds are burned over, they 

 collect morning and evening on these patches, to pick up the 

 half roasted insects, and getting quite fat, are shot for food by 

 hundreds. 



The great number of Woodpeckers here seen must be noticed 

 by every one. Not only does every species known in the United 

 States here reside, but numerous specimens of each, and espe- 

 cially the Red-headed and Golden-winged, which meet the view 

 on every side. Their great numbers are in exact accordance 

 with many conditions to which we have alluded, for they seem 

 always to follow on the track of the wood-boring insects. 



Dr. Cabot reoiarked that fronfi his own observations he 

 had been led to believe that the Vultures are guided by 

 the sense of smell as well as by that of sight in the dis- 

 covery of their prey. During his stay in Yucatan, he 

 observed that the body of a Turkey Buzzard thrown into 

 a dense thicket was discovered by its surviving compa- 

 nions ; giving reason to believe that they had been guided 

 to it by the former sense rather than the latter. The can- 

 nibal habits of the species were also Verified in the instance 

 in question. 



Mr. Ayers exhibited to the Society a Starfish, which he 

 believed to be the type of a new genus, allied to Pentago- 

 naster, Gray, although distinct from it, which he proposed 

 to call 



STEPHANASTER Ayres. 



Body depressed, nearly flat, formed of smooth, rounded, pro- 

 minent, spineless plates or ossicula, each surrounded with a ring 

 of granules. Margin formed by a double row of larger, smooth, 

 oblong plates, similarly bordered ; the terminal one of each series 

 enlarged and convex, thus forming a distinct protuberance at.Ae 

 end of each arm. Plates of lower surface like those of upper, 



