262 Cinciwiati Society of Natural History. 



Dr. V. VV. Langdon, one of our most faithful and assiduous 

 naturalists, contributes the following as to the Panther and Wolf: 



Felix loiuolor, Linnaeus, — Panther. — Under date of Decem- 

 ber 3, 1886, Mr. Raymond W. Smith, of Lebanon, Ohio, writes me 

 as follows : * =!= ^ " The Journal of the first Board of Com- 

 missioners of Warren county (Ohio), shows that, at their meeting 

 held September 15, 1803, they allowed, among others, the follow- 

 ing bill: 



" ' 7'o Timothy Squires, for killing one panther, 3dols.' By 

 consulting the deed record of the county for 1803, I find that 

 Squires lived about six miles west of Lebanon, near the Shaker 

 swamps, then very extensive and heavily wooded." 



Canis lupus, Linnaeus — Wolf.— The above letter also slates 

 that "on January 28, 1804. Arnold Snider and Aaron Swill were 

 each allowed two dollars for a wolt-scalp." 



F. W. Langdon, M. D. 



ORNITHOLGY. 



I). J. H. Hunt, one of our former presidents, contributes the 

 following item respecting the Martin : 



Cincinnati, Nov. 1, 1886. 



W. H. Fisher, Dear Sir:— While in Tallahassee, Fla., this 

 summer, I observed something in regard to the habits of the mar- 

 tins that was entirely new to me. I have never seen a martin 

 alight upon a tree with us in the North, but invariably upon 

 houses or the places fitted up for their especial benefit. On the 

 main street of Tallahassee, near the St. James Flotel, was a mul- 

 berry tree that had at some time been trimmed in close, so that it 

 had a very compact growth of limbs, forming a dense body of the 

 top of the tree. About 4 o'clock P. M. myriads of martins 

 would congregate there. 



It so happened that at this time there was being held an Inter- 

 State Shooting Tournament. Some of the clubs were at the hotel 

 and saw the martins come in every day, and one evening they 

 procured *a bag and fitted a hoop in it, and one of the party, 

 secreting himself in the tree, captured the birds in great quantities, 

 just as an entomologist would with his net lake butterflies, only 

 that instead of capturing but a single one at a sweep, he would 

 get from ten to twenty birds at a time, which were used next day 

 at the fair ground for practice. 



