430 



is sufficient for the purification of the blood. This fact shows the 

 importance of the cutaneous respiration and the insufficiency of 

 the puhnonary, and that these reptiles cannot be considered truly 

 amphibious, though probably approaching as near to this con- 

 dition as any animals. 



Specimens of Pomotis and Esox, and of amphibians, 

 were presented by Mr. H. D. Thoreau, from Concord, 

 Mass. Mr. Putnam was of opinion that one of the Po- 

 motis would prove a new species. There are with us 

 two varieties of Esox, commonly known as the long or 

 shovel-nosed pickerel, and the short or trout-nosed, to the 

 last of which the specimens belonged. Mr. Putnam was 

 inclined to think these were distinct species, unless the 

 differences should prove to be sexual. Drs. D. H. and 

 H. R. Storer considered them varieties of the same spe- 

 cies ; Messrs. Baird and Girard think them distinct. 



Dr. Bryant made some remarks on the habits of two fly- 

 catchers, Muscicapa acadica and M. JiaviveJitris ; the former is 

 represented by writers on ornithology as exceedingly wild, and as 

 inhabiting the most solitary places ; he had found it, on the con- 

 trary, generally quite familiar, breeding near his house, at Co- 

 hasset, Mass., and becoming so tame as to fly up to his hand to 

 receive a moth. He also mentioned that he had seen last June 

 two males of the white-crowned sparrow, a rare bird here even 

 in winter. 



Mr. A. E. Agassiz exhibited colored drawings of the 

 Salmo eri/ox, Linn., recently taken in the Merrimac 

 River. 



DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM. 



October 6, 1858. Bones of the head and scapular arch of Boras, from Buenos 

 Ayres; and coleoptera from Lunenburg, Mass.; by T. J. Whittemore. Skull 

 and skin of a new species of Antelope from South Africa; by Thomas Nelson. 

 A piece of impure ambergris from St. Domingo; by Capt. E. H. Russell. 



October 20. Several European reptiles, as follows: Laceria viridis, L. agilis, 



