The Zoologist — March, 1873. 3447 



peculiarities of a new animal discovered by Prof. Marsh, of Yale College, 

 and named by him Dinocerus mirabilis. This remarkable ungulate, nearly 

 the size of the elephant, was obtained from the Eocene beds of the Rocky 

 Mountain region. It possessed osseous cores for three pairs of horns, which 

 rise successively one above the other; a supra-occipital crest is greatly 

 developed, projecting obliquely backward beyond the condyles. The 

 posterior pair of horns arise from this crest, the medium from the maxillaries, 

 and the anterior from the tips of the nasals. The canines are greatly 

 developed, and the upper incisors are wantiug. The skull is unusually long 

 and narrow, and carries six small molar and premolar teeth. The extre- 

 mities resembled very nearly those in the proboscidia, but were proportion- 

 ately shorter. The femur possessed no third trochanter and no pit for the 

 ligamentum teres. It therefore possesses characters allying it with the 

 perissodactyles as well as the proboscidia. — ' Nature,' February 2, 1873. 



Sea-Lion at Dinner. — " There -was an enormous sea-lion alongside the 

 ship just now; he was busily engaged fishing, and I saw him catch five big 

 fish, eight or ten pounds weight, in less than half an hour. When he 

 catches a fish he comes to the surface and beats it backwards and forwards 

 violently on the water, until he seems to break it in two. During this 

 performance gulls innumerable fly about the beast, picking up the stray 

 morsels, and when he has finished he thrusts his huge head out of water 

 and allows the gulls to peck at his mouth and tusks ; in fact they seem to 

 clean his teeth for him. He then swims quietly about for five minutes or 

 60, rolls over on his side and goes down headlong, and in a few minutes 

 appears with another fish, when the same manoeuvres are gone through." — 

 G. F. Mathew; H.M.S. ' Bepuhe,' off Valparaiso, Januanj 1, 1873 

 [in litt). 



Stoat in Winter. — Do stoats all become more or less white during the 

 winter, and what is the supposed cause of the change ? Severe cold appears 

 to be the cause of the alpine hare, &c., becoming white in Arctic regions ; 

 but is the "cause and effect" so apparent in our odoriferous friend the 

 stoat ? I am led to make these remarks from what little I have seen, as 

 the white, or rather partly white, specimens are not particularly rare some 

 wintei-s in this locality. It will be remembered that last winter was far 

 from severe, and yet I had more specimens (some six or seven) sent me 

 than I had ever seen before. Most of them were in various stages of 

 change, some being much whiter than others; but one specimen in par- 

 ticular was entirely white, except a brown spot, about the size of a pea, over 

 each eye, and the black tip to the tail, which latter mark of course is 

 common to all. All the specimens I ever had were obtained during the 

 months of December and January, but some winters, when the cold has 

 been very severe, I have not seen the so-called "ermine" at all. I never 

 saw any but the entire brown variety in the summer. I have not seen a 



