Vol. XXIV. No. S.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
119 
stratc their cruelty. It is the learned orni- 
thologist who should first outgrow the 
necessity for collecting. 
Finally, it is not true that "not one egg in 
a thousand " has been preserved two months. 
Barring the distressing accidents incident to 
inexperience in handling the fragile shells, 
most of the eggs arc still in good condition, 
carefully blown through one well-drilled hole 
in the side, packed in neat cases (made, usu- 
ally, by the boys' own patient fingers), classi- 
fied, and neatly labeled ; and in several of our 
local museums they may be seen today, silent 
witnesses to the earnestness and conscientious 
industry of our students. 
Tills unfounded attack upon an Association 
' that has for fifteen years been endeavoring to 
train the youth of America into habits 
of acciuate observation and a considerate 
treatment of all God's creatures, has been 
widely circulated and copied. Oiu" reply 
cannot hope to overtake it, but we trust that 
those of our friends who know the facts will 
help us counteract its infiuence. 
*♦»- 
NEW YORK CITY ASSEMBLY OF THE A. A. 
ANNUAL REPORT. 
TliK meeting of September i6, 1889, was held at 
the Friends' Seminary. William T. Demarest, 
of Chapter 87, (B), delivered an illustrated paper 
on "Photography." 
The next quarterly meeting was held at the rooms 
of Chapter 949, (Z), on December 19. The pro- 
gramme for the evening consisted of papers on 
methods of work; in mineralogy, G. S. Stanton; 
in botany, E. B. Miller; in entomology, H. Ries. 
A number ot plans were discussed in regard to a 
geological survey of Manhattan Island, the official 
organs of the A. A., and the offering of competitive 
diplomas for Chapter work. 
A meeting was held on the evening of P'ebruary 
27, as a preliminary session to the Convention 
of the New York and New Jersey Assemblies on the 
following days. The reports of Chapters received 
on this occasion were encouraging. Chapter 67, 
(A), reorganized, and a new Chapter — 922, (Y) — 
was admitted. Mr. S. W. Bridgham, of the Wilson 
Ornothological Chapter, gave an interesting sketch 
of tlie work of that Chapter. 
Of the very successful Convention on the two 
davs following, full reports have already been pub- 
lished in the Popular Science News. Mr. Kunz's 
paper on the mineralogy of New York City, Mr. 
Ballard's address, and Prof. Allen's speech have 
been published in the University Forum, copies 
of which may be obtained from Mr. J. F. Tucker, 
Now York University. We sincerely hope that the 
success of Ibis Convention may lead to others, in 
which all the Assemblies and Chapters on the 
Atlantic Coast may unite. 
At the meeting of March 31, President C. II. 
Bushong read a paper on "The Physiology of Plant- 
Life." The election of ollicers for the ensuing year 
resulted as follows : 
Presi.lint— Or. C. II. BuslumR, S62, (W). 
Vii:c rresi.liiit— Miss 1,. C I-evy, 67, (A). 
Uc'corjinji .Si^crt-tiiry— II. 'ricticmaiiii, 397, (H). 
Corrcspomliiig St:crctary~'l'. G. While, 949, (Z), 206 l-'iflh 
Avciuic. 
ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS BY MEMBERS 
OF THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 
2fit. A Curious Jumping Gall. — 
Oatlands Park, Wi.:vi!ridoe, England, 1 
April 22, 1890. / 
We have found a most curious insect on a bough 
k 
of May blossom. Both in form and color it is 
exactly like a large bud of the blossom just before 
it opens. The skin is just turning a shade creamy, 
and is of very fine, leathery texture. It makes 
frequent bounds or springs from the table to the 
height of nearly six inches. Were it not for this, 
one would pass it by as a May bud. Can you 
enlighten us? E. M. McDowell. 
[This interesting letter was sent to Professor 
Lintner, State Entomologist of New York, and a 
member of the A. A. Council, and we give his 
reply nearly in full. — Editor.] 
Albany, June 7, 1S90. 
Dear Mr. Ballard : Thank you for permitting 
me to read the letter of E. M. McDowell, which has 
interested me much. You ask what the curious 
insect referred to therein may be. It was something 
that I had never met with nor read of, and I there- 
fore sent the description given to Professor Riley, 
thinking that perhaps it might have come under his 
observation while in England, during his early life. 
He kindly returned me the following reply: 
"I was much interested in the' account of the 
deformation of the May bud from my old boyhood 
tramping-ground, Oatlands, Weybridge. I regret 
to be unable to say positively what the deformation 
is. It must, however, be some kind of gall, and the 
movements are caused by the gall-maker; and as 
there is but one known to me, viz , the bedeguar 
of the hawthorn {Cecidemyia cralmgi, Winneetz), it 
is probably that species, (see Kaltenbeck), but I 
never heard of its jumping so." 
I have not Kallenbeck at hand to refer to for 
a description of the gall, but in a publication on the 
"Gall-Making Diptera of Scotland," by Prof J. W. 
H. Trail, I find: "Cecidemyia cratrtgi, Winn., 
often galls the terminal buds of the hawthorn 
{Cratagus oxyncantha), producing a rosette of sessile 
deformed leaves, often covered with prickly liases. 
The' rosette may be an inch and a half across. 
Between the leaves live several of the larvsc." 
If we accept the probable determination of Pro- 
fessor Riley, the curious object observed must have 
been the gall of the fly, containing its nearly 
matured larva. Its remarkable bounds of nearly 
six inches in height (.') would be the result of the 
larva bending its body in an arched form and then 
by a strong muscular action suddenly throwing 
itself into a reverse position. It is quite probable 
that this gall is identical with that described in 
Science Gossip for December, 1S67, in a communica- 
tion from Ventnor, Isle of Wight, quoted by Mr. 
Charles R. Dodge in Field and Forest, II., p. 55, as 
follows : 
"The writer describes the 'jumping seed' as 
a 'small excrescence' which had been taken from a 
hawthorn; it was about the sixth of an inch in 
length, pear-shaped, and in size resembled a grape 
or raisin stone. The specimen had been seen to 
jerk or leap nearly an inch from a given point, 
though while in his possession it had not shown 
such activity, leaping only a third or a quarter 
of that distance. On opening the case, it was 
found to contain a whitish maggot with a small, 
yellowish, scaly head, the body bent into a semi- 
circle, and the tail-end slightly flattened. It had no 
legs, but the shining skin was deeply corrugated, or 
thrown into folds, which appeared to serve in some 
degree as limbs." 
If the above description of the larva is approxi- 
mately correct, it could not have been a Cecidemyia, 
Quite a number of "jumping galls" and "jump- 
ing seeds" are known to science. Of the former, 
one ol the most interesting is a species occurring as 
a small globular body of about the size of a mustard 
seed, formed on the under side of leaves of (Jiterciis 
ohtusifolia, Q. macrocarpa, and Q. alia, in Califor- 
nia, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, anil less 
frequently eastward. Sometimes a thousand of these 
galls arc found on a single leaf. "The gall drops in 
large quantities to the ground, and the insect within 
can make it bound twenty times its own length, the 
ground under an infested tree being sometiines 
fairly alive with the mysterious moving bodies. 
The noise made by them often resembles the patter- 
ing of rain. The motion is imparted by the inseit 
in the pupa, and not in the larva state." (Riley: 
American Naturalist, .X., p. 218.) The insect form- 
ing the above gall is known scientifically as Neuro- 
terus saltatorius, (H. Edwards.) 
Mr. Ashmead has published an account of another 
of these curious forms, which he has named 
Andrims saltatus, {Trans. Amer. Entomolog. Soc, 
XIV., 1887, p. 142.) Two or three of the galls are 
formed on the bud-axils of the blue-jack oak 
(Quercus cinerea) in early spring, in Florida. "It 
appears the last of March, and when first taken 
from the tree and for several weeks thereafter, it has 
the power of jumping, due to the contraction and 
sudden relaxation of the larva within ; soine of them 
will jump three-fourths of an inch from the table." 
An interesting jumping gall was received by me 
last year, from a gentleman at Fort Edward, N. Y., 
which had been found beneath a tree, leaping 
actively about, by his little daughter. Unfortu- 
nately, I was not able to obtain the insect from it 
and learn the particular species. 
The most interesting of all these "jumpers" is, 
undoubtedly, the one popularly known as the 
"Mexican jumping seed," which is a large seed- 
vessel, of nearly half an inch in diameter, believed 
to be of a species of Euphorbia. Its peculiar leaps, 
jumps, and tumbles are occasioned by the move- 
ments of the caterpillar of a small moth confined 
within, known as Carpocapsa saliitans, Westwood. 
The insect borrows additional interest from the fact 
that it is cogeneric with our well-known and com- 
mon codling-moth {Carpocapsa 2>omonella), which 
is responsible for the annoyance of the fruit-eater, 
and serious losses to the fruit-grower, from the 
defilement, disfigurement, and destruction of the 
"apple-worm." 
In my fourth report on the insects of New York, 
figures, and a pretty full account of these jumping 
seeds have been given, and reference made to other 
literature on the subject. 
Regretting that I cannot give a more .satisfactory 
reply to your inquiry, — one which would enable you 
to return a positive answer to your correspondent, — • 
I am Very truly yours, 
J. A. Lintner. 
262. Cherry -Birds Eat Apple -Blossom.s. 
[See Su^sa Oross, May, 1S89, p. 156, Note 242.] — 
Two years ago you published in the Swiss Cross an 
account which 1 wrote of cherry-birds eating the 
petals of apple-blossoms. A gentleman from New 
York — Albany, I believe — wrote to me, thinking 
that I must have been mistaken, and suggesting 
that the birds were probably eating insects from the 
blossoms rather than the petals themselves. This 
spring three of the birds came into an apple-tree 
under my window. I could see distinctly that two 
of the birds swallowed several petals. Some they 
would run through their bills and drop; some they 
bit pieces from ; but I feel sure I am not mistaken 
this time in saying that they ate the petals. I have, 
unfortunately, lost the address of the gentleman 
who wrote to me about the matter.-r-FANNY E. 
Langdon, Plymouth, N. H. 
263. Flowers in Winter. — On January 2 I 
found the following flowers growing in exposed 
