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6 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



thirty-three species. In Bermuda, Miss An- ! 

 nie M. Peniston is collecting in quantities, | 

 the shells of those islands, of which there i 

 are many varieties, with a view to exchang- 

 ing Bermuda shells for those of other parts j 

 of the world. 



The largest collection of shells in the : 

 world is in the British Museum in London ; j 

 its immense collection, which has been accu- | 

 mulating for years, having recentl}' received | 

 the addition of the cabinet of the late Hugh 

 Cumming, a gentleman who spent thirty I 

 years of his life traveling in all parts of the I 

 world, constantly collecting, buying, and ex- 

 changing duplicates with others, until he 

 had accumulated nearly thirty thousand spe- 

 cies. The largest collection in this country 

 is in the Academy of Natural Sciences, at 

 Philadelphia. Besides the public collections 

 contained in the various museums through- 

 out the countr}', such as the museum at 

 Central Park, N. Y., the Boston Society of 

 Natural Histor}', the Essex Institute at 

 Salem, Brown University in Providence, and 

 man}' others, there are a great many pri- 

 vate cabinets, one of which, belonging to a 

 gentleman in New York City, contains twelve 

 thousand species ; another in Oakland, Cal- 

 ifornia, contains ten thousand species. A 

 great deal of interest is taken in Conchology 

 in New Bedford, Mass., there being nearly 

 fifty private cabinets in that city containing 

 one thousand species and upwards in each. 



The Mollusca are distributed over the 

 surface of the earth, in geographical and in 

 zoological provinces, or centres of distribu- 

 tion. No one section of country or conti- 

 nent, even, can furnish species of all the gen- 

 era, families, orders or classes, of any branch 

 of natural history-. The world is the field ; 

 and only by comparison and research in all 

 parts of our globe, can we obtain the mate- 

 rial for a monograph of any group. 



The fauna of Rhode Island is of course 

 very limited, and there are many families, 

 orders, and even whole classes, not repre- 

 sented at all. Out of more than thirty thou- 

 sand species of shells, known and described 

 by naturalists, there are but a little over two 

 hundred existing in our state. The marine 

 species may be represented as largely in 

 numbers perhaps, as in any other portion of 

 our cold northern shores, but the land and 

 fresh water species are not only numerically 

 small, but are also stunted in size ; speci- 

 mens of the same species found in Rhode 



Island being much smaller than those found 

 farther west. The reason for this is, that 

 our soil is destitute of lime, while the west- 

 ern states are rich in it ; and as the animal 

 secretes its shell (which is composed of car- 

 bonate of lime) from the food it lives upon, 

 the reason is obvious. 



/ [To he rontintwd.] 



A Very Rare Bird in Rhode Island. 



A YOUNG Gyrfalcon, Bierojalco gyrfoko 

 var. sacer, was killed by E. S. Hopkins, 

 Esq., at Point Judith, C3ct. 11, 1883, and 

 brought to us. For the benefit of those 

 who may be unacquainted with this bird in 

 the^'oung phase of plumage, we would state : 

 It most nearly resembles the adult Goshawk 

 in general coloration, but the breast is 

 streaked up and down as in the young Gos- 

 hawk, and not crosswise as in the adult bird. 

 This is the second record for Rhode Island, 

 the first being by Mr. Dexter, winter of 

 1864-65. 



The specimen in the collection of Brown 

 University has quite a stor}' connected with 

 it. It was sent alive from Maine to a gen- 

 tleman here, and he, not knowing what to 

 do with it, came tons, representing it to be, 

 as he supposed, a Goshawk. As we could 

 not use it at the price it had cost him, he 

 signified his intention of giving it to Roger 

 Williams Park, where we assured him it 

 would be acceptable. We visited the park 

 shorth' afterward, and saw the bird for the 

 first time, which was not a Goshawk, but a 

 Jerfalcon. We told Mr. Adcock about it, 

 and upon visiting the park he learned of its 

 death, and the wings were pointed out to 

 him tacked up in the barn. These he ob- 

 tained, as also the body, which had been 

 buried about a week, and with careful work 

 succeeded in making a good specimen of it. 



/ Brunnich's Guillemot in Rhode Island. 

 — Mr. H. A. Talbot shot one between War- 

 wick Neck Light and Patience Island, Dec. 

 26, 1883. The first specimen we have ever 

 known taken in Narragansett Bay. 



Since the above article was set up, an- 

 other specimen has been received from Bris- 

 tol. 



Books on Natural History for sale by 

 Southwick & Jencks, Providence, R. I. 



/Hj 



