352 



with its hinged door, another spider having made a hole large enough to 

 conceal itself in two hours. The method of digging was the same in the main 

 as that described by the speaker for the tarantula. The young when they 

 emerge at once build their own miniature nests which are renewed every 

 spring until they reach the full size. Based on the study of a Lycosid the 

 speaker had predicted that the enemy of the trap-door spider would be found 

 to be a diurnal wasp. Dr. Davidson had established the fact that such is the 

 case and that the attacking species is Parapompihis planahcs Fox. — Mr. H, 

 C. Mercer made a report on his recent exploration of certain caves in 

 Tennessee which he had been able to prosecute under the patronage of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, mainly through the liberality of Dr. William 

 Pepper, In Zirkel's cave on Dumpling Creek, Jefferson County, Tennessee, 

 crusts of breccia projected from the walls and hung from the roof. From 

 this material the teeth of the tapir, peccary, etc., projected, while in the 

 cave earth below were found bones, nuts, two pieces of Indian pottery and 

 fragments of mica, probably indicating Indian cave burial. There were, 

 therefore, two ages indicated : one ancient, by the breccia, and the other, the 

 cave earth, comparatively recent. All the fossil remains belonged to the 

 breccia and there was no association between them and the indications of 

 human life. Another cave on the Tennessee River, under Lookout Mountain, 

 Hamilton County, Tennessee, presented a floor of two layers, the black top 

 one of three or three and a half feet in thickness composed of Indian remains 

 and another of yellow earth containing a few animal remains but no indi- 

 cation of human existence. Mylodon and Tapirus fragments found some- 

 time ago close to the bottom of the upper layer had probably been scraped 

 up from the lower. Neither, therefore, did this cave present any certain data 

 for the advancement of the date of Man's antiquity. On the contrary the 

 evidence supported the belief that pleistocene or paleolithic Man had not 

 existed in that region. On penetrating the forbidding entrance of Big Bone 

 Cave, near Caney Fork River, Van Buren County, Tennessee, he had found 

 nine hundred feet in, the bones of Megalonyx still bearing articular cartilages. 

 Fragments of torches were found beneath the sloth bones probably buried 

 by burrowing rats. — Prof. E. D. Cope commented on the fossil bones 

 collected in the caves described by Mr. Mercer. The presence of cartilages 

 on the Megalonyx bones indicated for them an age certainly not more remote 

 than the existence of Man on this continent. Other bones belonging to 

 young individuals were larger than corresponding ones found at Port Kennedy 

 indicating the validity of the two species : Megalonyx Wheaileyi and M. 

 Jeffersonii. Mr. Mercer had also collected remains of fifteen or twenty species 

 of birds, six fishes, one batrachian, four tortoises, one rattlesnake and nine- 

 teen mammals. The special value of Mr. Mercer's careful work was com- 

 mented on. The peccary is found in Zirkel's cave although no trace of it 

 appears in the Lookout Mountain cave. Several undescribed species were 

 indicated. 



III. Personal-Î^otizen. 



Herr Dr. A. C. Oudemans, Lehreram Gymnasium und an der Höhe- 

 ren Bürgerschule zu Sneek, Friesland, Niederlande, ist zum Lehrer ernannt 

 worden an der Höheren Bürgerschule zu Arnheim. (Neue Adresse: Boule- 

 vard, 82, Arnheim.) 



Druck von Breitkopf & HRrtel in Leipzig. 



