22 



The female displays wonderful sagacity in the manner in which 

 she avoids the necessity either of abandoning her nest or of hatch- 

 ing the Qgg of the Cow Blackbird which has been dropped into it ; 

 the latter is too large to be removed by the Yellow-bird, and is 

 accordingly covered over, at the same time with her own eggs, 

 probably having been previously pierced ; and upon the floor 

 thus made at the bottom of her nest, she lays another set of eggs, 

 building up the sides of the nest lo the requisite height — this she 

 has been known to do for this cause even to the third nest-making. 

 From an observation of twenty-five years he believed that the 

 Yellow-bird never hatches the egg of the Cow Blackbird, but 

 always disposes of it in the above manner, sacrificing her own 

 eirss rather than hatch out a stranger which her instinct tells her 

 will destroy her offspring, and impose a heavy burden on herself. 

 That such two-storied nests are not more often found may be 

 owing to the fact that the warbler is a very close sitter, rarely 

 leaving her nest after the deposition of the first egg, so that the 

 blackbird does not find many opportunities of dropping an egg 

 into the nest. 



Mr. Putnam mentioned having found three of these two-storied 

 nests in a single season, in this State. 



Dr. L. M. Sargent mentioned the case of a woman 

 under his observation, in whom there exists a small 

 supplementary mammary gland, with the characteristic 

 secretion. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited some specimens of Tetra- 

 dymite, or Telluret of Bismuth, associated with native 

 gold, from Dahlonega, Georgia ; the associated rocks 

 were very rich in gold, four times richer than in Califor- 

 nia. He also exhibited some Itacolumite containing gold, 

 from Hall Co., Georgia, a locality where diamonds of con- 

 siderable size have been found — and beautiful crystals of 

 Rutile, with Pyrophyllite,from Lincoln Co., Georgia, where 

 it occurs in large masses. In the gold region there are 

 great quantities of specular iron ore ; it is proved at every 

 eruption of Vesuvius that specular iron ore is formed 



