244 Scraps in Natural History. 



ing this maneuver the third time without success, he seated him- 

 self as before, then suddenly raised his head, looked down the lane 

 with an air of great excitement, and starting up, ran full speed to- 

 ward the pretended object of his attack. The larger dog, effec- 

 tually deceived by this stratagem, left the bone, quickly followed, 

 outstripped the other and soon reached the gate, but only to find 

 that he had nothing to bark at. The little dog in the mean while 

 had slily hastened back, and carried off the bone. Under the head 

 of "Genius among Animals," Spurzheim relates two similar in- 

 stances of canine sagacity: one little dog, by such an artifice, was 

 accustomed to "secure his portion ;" and a pointer, by the same 

 means, obtained a comfortable place near the fire from which he 

 was excluded by other dogs in the family. 



Squirrels : larvce of Estrus in them. — West wood states, in his 

 " Modern Classification of Insects," that " each species of Estrus 

 is parasitic upon a peculiar species of mammiferous herbivorous 

 animal ;" and that " the ox, horse, ass, reindeer, stag, antelope, 

 camel, sheep, hare and rhinoceros, [in a note, he adds the badger 

 and monkey,] are the only quadrupeds hitherto observed to be 

 subject to the attacks of these insects." To this catalogue must 

 be added the squirrel; for I have in my possession an estrous 

 larva about three fourths of an inch long, two or three lines 

 broad, and perfectly black, which was taken from the back of a 

 Sciurus leucotis, (Bachman,) or northern gray squirrel. 



Quadrupeds about Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana. 



"Local lists are still wanting, to enable naturalists to trace their geographical limits with 

 precision." — Richardson. 



This remark of Dr. Richardson, though made in reference to 

 the feathered tribes, is perhaps equally applicable to other objects 

 of natural history. Under this impression, I offer you the fol- 

 lowing catalogue of mammals found in this vicinity before and 

 since its settlement by white men. 



Preliminary statements respecting the physical character, and 

 the progress of civilized population, are not, I presume, inappro- 

 priate to zoological catalogues. For it is well known that some 

 animals follow the path of civilization, while others flee before 

 it ; some seek the streams, and some the hills ; others select the 

 plains, the open forests, or the tangled wood. There is also a 

 certain relation between the kind of trees and the wild tenants 



