212 



trays no little impatience, and gives a jerk or kick with his feet, 

 until the intruder is out of the way. 



Dr. Brewer remarked, that he had known the large Bull-frog 

 to seize and swallow young ducks. 



Prof William B. Rogers observed, that the frog was very sus- 

 ceptible to the enticement of motion. He had often caught them 

 at the South, simply by agitating a hook and line baited with red 

 tape. 



Rev. Theodore Parker stated that he had a fact worthy of 

 note in the habits of the New England Bear. At Lake Wil- 

 loughby, in Vermont, are a couple of fine bears secured in this 

 manner : To a pole fixed vertically in the ground is attached 

 a beam, in such a manner as to permit of its horizontal motion. 

 To each extremity of the beam one of the bears is secured by a 

 chain. As is the custom with these animals, they are in con- 

 tinual motion ; but what is remarkable, this motion is always in 

 one direction, whether in the large circle around the central pole, 

 or in the small circle around their chains. They move from the 

 East towards the North, and from the West towards the South, 

 and never in the contrary direction. When started in the con- 

 trary direction by interference of bystanders, their course is 

 voluntarily changed when the restraint is removed. 



Prof. William B. Rogers stated, that in a recent letter 

 from Prof. Dana, of New Haven, he had been informed 

 that a new fossil plant, a species of Clathropteris, had been 

 discovered in the Connecticut River Sandstone, and would 

 be described in the July number of Silliman's Journal. 

 The new species is analogous to a specimen in the posses- 

 sion of the President, and would tend to prove the prox- 

 imity in the geological series, if not the actual identity, of 

 the Connecticut Valley series with the Liassic Rocks of 

 some of the Southern States. 



The Curator of Oology exhibited five specimens of birds' 

 eggs, from the Philippine Islands, presented by Dr. Knee- 

 land at the last meeting. The species of these eggs is 



