230 Miscellaneous. 



ginning to eat. "When different pieces were offered to him, lie trans- 

 ferred "the first to his hind feet to make room for more; then filled 

 his mouth and hands, and concealed portions behind him. With a 

 large piece in his hands he would pick the hand of his master clean 

 before using his own, which he was sure of. — Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 April 1872, p. 40. 



Curious Hahit of a Snahe. 'By Mr. Cope. 



Mr. Cope made the following remarks : — I had for some time a 

 specimen of Cydophis oistivus, received from Fort Macon, N. C, 

 through the kindness of Dr. Yarrow, living in a AVardian case. The 

 slender form of this snake, and its beautiful green and yellow colours, 

 have led to the opinion that it is of arboreal or bush-loving habits. 

 It never exhibited such in confinement, however, and instead of 

 climbing over the Caladia, ferns, &c., lived mostly under ground. 

 It had a curious habit of projecting its head and two or thi'ce inches 

 of its body above the ground, and holding them for hours rigidly in 

 a fixed attitude. In this position it resembled very closely a sprout 

 or shoot of some green succulent plant, and might readily be mis- 

 taken for such by small animals. — Ihid. 



Er/gs and ncwhj Jiatched Yomuj of Ixodes Dugesii and Argas reflexus. 

 By Geokge Gullivee, F.ll.S. 



Seeing the dreadful ravages committed of late by the la'odes on 

 sheep and pheasants, and the novelty of Argas as a British Arachnid 

 (Ann. Nat. Hist. March 1872), any contribution towards the economy 

 of these Acarina may be important or interesting. And now we are 

 able to determine pretty nearly the time and manner in which both 

 these species are hatched. At the meeting of the East Kent Natural- 

 History Society at Canterbury, August 15, 1872, my son exhibited 

 (as reported in the ' Kentish Gazette ' newspaper four days after- 

 wards) specimens of the eggs and recently hatched young of both 

 these so-called ticks. The eggs of the Ixodes were smooth, regularly 

 oval, about -jL- of an inch long, and -^ broad, and of a shining 

 chocolate colour ; those of the Argas were larger, occasionally sub- 

 oval, but the majority of them globular, about Jj of an inch in 

 diameter, of a greyish colour, and slightly rough on the surface. 

 Adults of the Ixodes and Argas were confined in separate boxes 

 early in June, and were seen to be lively and unchanged at the end 

 of that month ; but the eggs were laid in clumps some time after- 

 wards, and on the 1st of August most of them, both of Ixodes and 

 Argas, were found to be hatched. The young broods of both species 

 were in most respects miniatures of their parents — only, as is already 

 known of some other Acarina, with but six legs — and running about 

 with great activity ; and the newly hatched specimens of Argas 

 were hairy, especially at the hinder part, whci'c there is a fringe 



