Bibliography. 411 



the American race is essentially separate and peculiar, whether we re- 

 gard its physical, moral, or intellectual relations. The evidence of 

 history and the evidence of the Egytian monuments, go to prove that 

 these races were as distinctly stamped three thousand five hundred 

 years ago as they are now ; and in fact that they are coeval with the 

 primitive dispersion of our species." 



2. The Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. IV, 

 No. 4, pp. 377 to 512. PI. 17 to 24. — The contents of this number are 

 as usual chiefly zoological, and embrace a variety of interesting topics. 

 The articles in this department are the following. 



" On the external characters and habits, and on the organization of 

 Troglodytes niger, Geof, by Thomas S. Savage and Jeffries Wyman, 

 M. D." This is the conclusion of a paper commenced in a preceding 

 number. The anatomical details by Dr. Wyman are characterized by 

 his usual care and accuracy, and tend to confirm the observations of 

 Prof. Owen on the same animal. Its distinctive characteristics are now 

 well understood. The remarks of Dr. Savage on its habits possess a 

 peculiar interest, from the opportunity which a residence of several 

 years on the western coast of Africa, as a missionary, has afforded him 

 for observing these animals in their natural condition. It appears that 

 their habitation is chiefly in trees, where they construct a slight nest 

 of broken twigs and branches, usually resting on a large limb or in a 

 crotch, but sometimes suspended near the end of a leafy branch twenty 

 or thirty feet from the ground. They are timid and inoffensive to man, 

 and feed chiefly upon vegetables and fruit. The canine teeth are un- 

 commonly developed and serve as a means of attack and defense, but 

 do not indicate carnivorous propensities. They arc very filthy. The 

 degree of their intelligence appears to us to be overstated, and is prob- 

 ably derived in part from the imagination of observers. 



" Descriptions and figures of the Araneides of the United States, by 

 Nicholas Marcellus Hentz." This elaborate article by Dr. Hentz is 

 illustrated with excellent figures, and his descriptions are ample and 

 in general accompanied with remarks on the habits of the respective 

 species. The species described are the following : Lycosa lenta, ru- 

 ricola, saltatrix, erratica, littoralis, maritima, aspersa, riparia, punc- 

 tulata, scutulata, sagittata, ochreala, vemtstula, milcina, saxatilis, fu- 

 llered. Ctenus hybernalis, punctulatus. Dolomedes tenax, hastula- 



tus, tenebrosus. 



" Description of an African beetle allied to Scaralccus polyphemus, 

 with remarks upon some other insects of the same group, byTHADDEUs 

 Vv'illiam Harris." This paper contains an account of the group of 

 magnificent insects known as the Goliath beeth , with copious remarks 



