1580 The Zoologist — March, 1869, 



division of the Batrachia) may not prove eventually to be the 

 undeveloped young of vvell-knowu species. 



In addition to the ackuowledgments already made, the writer 

 desires, iu concluding, to express his ihauks to General W. Snyder, 

 Superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad, for his kind assistance 

 in securing the siredons at Lake Como in August last; to his friend 

 Prof E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia, for various suggestions in regard to 

 the subject here treated of; and likewise to his friend Prof. George F. 

 Barker, of Yale College, for careful observations on the specimens 

 while he was temporarily absent from New Haven. 



O. C. Marsh. 



Yale College, October 10, 1868. 



* Letters Home.' By the Rev. Hamlet Clark. 



[When, in 1867, I published a brief notice of this iiUeresling little book in the 

 * Zoologist' (S. S. 997) I was absolutely compelled, from want of space, to cut out and 

 omit the extracts given below. 1 knew too well the interpretation truthfully given to 

 such phrases as "want of space," "crowded out," "unavoidably postponed," "great 

 press of matter," and so forth, to pen either of these " formuUe for the confession of 

 editorial poverty,'' and so quietly laid by these extracts for the " more convenient 

 season," which has now arrived. They lose none of their original freshness from 

 having been deferred lor (ilteen months; and I am sure it will be a sincere pleasure 

 to many of my readers to be thus agreeably reminded of cue they loved so well as my 

 friend Hamlet Clark. — Edward jSewmanI\ 



Fire Flies. — This is a pleasant boarding-house in the very midst of 

 the wood, with virgin forest on all sides of us, and plenty of insects 

 even in the rainy season. 1 have been out two or three evenings, 

 hardly with the expectation of getting anylhiug, but for the sake of 

 seeing the fire flies. It is no figure of speech to say that on still 

 evenings, especially after a rainy afternoon, they eclipse the stars; 

 their lights are of all sizes and magnitudes, and more than one colour. 

 The large Elateridae of the genus Pyrophorus have a brilliant, steady 

 and ver}' bright light: these are difficult to catch, inasmuch as they 

 sail slowly round the tops of the high trees, looking exactly like 

 wandering planets ; others, smaller but of brilliant lustre, fly hither 

 and thither among the brushwood (also Pyrophori perhaps, at all 

 events Elaterida; and not Lampyridoe, like our English glow-worm), 

 quite within reach of one's net; ouly to rush after their lanterns in the 

 dark would incur the risk of broken bones: all I can do is to admire. 



