Hamlin.] 80 



mens were taken that had attained a length of three inches. The 

 legs of these were halt' an inch long, with all the toes readilv dis- 

 tinguishable. But in none of the fall specimens, nor in the largest 

 of those collected in the first eleven davs in June, -vrere there anv 

 external indications of anterior limbs. Between October 31st and 

 November 10th, a week of sharp cold intervened, during which thick 

 ice formed upon still water. Three successive days of warm rain fol- 

 lowed, and on November 1 Oth I found the tadpoles very lively in the 

 ditches from which most of my specimens were taken. On the 13th, 

 snow fell and remained to the depth of several inches. The subsequent 

 cold probably drove the tadpoles into permanent winter quarters. 



From the foregoing facts I infer that at least a part of the young of 

 one or more species of Frogs are, in this vicinity, overtaken by winter 

 before completing their changes, and that having hybemated as tad- 

 poles. they resume their development with the return of spring. And 

 as I have found so late as October 17th. salamanders still retaining 

 their gills, the same is probably true of some species of our Urodela. 



Os A H-VBIT OF CeRTHLA. AMERICAXA SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN 

 HITHERTO tTrS-OTICED BY AUTHORS. By C E. HL^MLEN'. 



In January, 1863. while searching in the woods of "WatervUle for 

 winter birds. I observed a habit of CertJiia americana which has not 

 been described by any naturalist, so far as 1 can ascertain. 



I stood watching the peculiarly nimble motions of six or eight Brown 

 Creepers as they ran up the trunks of the tallest beeches and maples, 

 and saw them repeatedly fly from the tops of trees which they had 

 vi5^ examined to the foot of neighboring ones, in the manner described by 

 ornithologists. In two cases, however, individuals, not seeming satis- 

 fied with the search they had already made, commenced it anew. 

 But instead of running downward from the top of the trunk, as is the 

 well known habit of the Nuthatches, each of the two referred to 

 dropped perpendicularly, for twenr\' feet or more, with closed wings 

 to the foot of the tree up which it had just been climbing, and, when 

 close to the ground, darted aside to the trunk and ran upward again. 



Happening in both instances to be quite near the performers of this 

 singular feat, I saw the manner of executing it perfectly: and as three 

 of the birds were shot and identified, there is no doubt about the 

 species. I have found this bird here only in the fall and winter.* 



Dr. C. T. Jackson presented some spjeciniens of carbon- 

 iferous plants from the Wyoming coal basin in Pennsylvania, 

 making a few remarks upon their position. He also pre- 



* Since writing the above, 1 find that Goise fBird? of Jamaica, p. 1.35,) ascribes 

 the same habit of dropping vertically downward, upon the wing, to JIniotiUa varia. 



