108 



SCIENCE. 



[N. a. Vol. XV. No. 368. 



a gravel bed about sixteen feet in thickness. In 

 the gravel at the bottom of the spring v?ere 

 f ovmd several hundred finely made flint arrov?- 

 heads and spear-points, such as were used by 

 the buffalo-hunting tribes, flakers of deer 

 antlers, bones of recent wolf, horse, bison and 

 elk, and teeth and fragments of bone of fossil 

 bison, horse, mammoth and mastodon, teeth of 

 these latter being present in considerable num- 

 bers and in an excellent state of preservation. 

 In the gravel all about were similar fossil re- 

 mains, but somewhat widely scattered. It 

 had been learned from an old Indian chief that 

 the arrow heads and other implements were 

 cast into the spring as offerings, but it was 

 difficult to account for such large numbers of 

 fossil teeth and broken bones and their mixture 

 with those of i-ecent animals. It was suggested 

 by Mr. Gilbert in the discussion which followed 

 Mr. Holmes' paper, that possibly these teeth 

 were offerings also, having been gathered from 

 time to time, as they might have been washed 

 out, and cast into the spring. 



W. A. Orton described ' The Wilt Disease of 

 the Cow Pea and its Control,' stating that the 

 disease was caused by the clogging of the water 

 tubes by bacteria, and that it was very preva- 

 lent among all save one of the varieties of the 

 cow pea. This variety, known as the Iron, 

 was resistant to the wilt bacillus as well as to 

 the nematode, causing root -knot; that it was 

 thus doubly resistant was an additional reason 

 for hoping that similar cases might be found 

 among other plants. 



Theo. Gill presented a paper, in conjunction 

 with C. H. Townsend, on 'The Largest Deep- 

 Sea Fish,' this being the species described in 

 Science for December 13, under the name of 

 Macrias amissiis. 



William Palmer gave 'A Study of Two 

 Ghosts,' explaining the manner in which spec- 

 tral appearances had been caused on two occa- 

 sions. In one instance the shadow of a person 

 had been thrown on a cloud of mist by a light 

 shining through a window of an adjacent 

 house, and in the other a similar shadow had 

 been cast on a passing dust cloud by an electric 

 light. The disappearance of the mist and of 

 the dust gave the impression of a vanishing 

 figure. F. A. Lucas. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



ARE HUMMING-BIRDS CYPSELOID OR CAPRIMUL- 



GOID? 



In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London, for April 2, 1901, there is a most 

 interesting paper by Professor D'Arcy Thomp- 

 son 'On the Pterylosis of the Giant Hum- 

 ming-bird (Patagona gigas).' It is illustrated 

 by some excellent figures and the description 

 is detailed and accurate. In his concluding 

 paragraph the writer says: "On the balance 

 of evidence, I am- inclined to think that the 

 facts of pterylosis, so far as they go, tend to 

 justif.y the association of the hmnming-birds 

 with the goat-suckers and swifts, and, if any- 

 thing, to bring them somewhat nearer the for- 

 mer than the latter of the last two." But he 

 adds that 'the evidence is confused and the 

 judgment far from clear.' 



In the Journal of the Linnean Society, 

 1888, Dr. E. W. Shufeldt published his well- 

 known 'Studies of the Macrochires.' He, too, 

 had investigated the ptcrylography of hum- 

 ming-birds, goat-suckers and swifts, and he 

 reached these conclusions: The Capriinulgi 

 "have their nearest kin in the owls, and they 

 have no special affinity with the Cypseli, much 

 less with the Trochili. * * * The true swifts 

 must have a group or an order created for 

 them, as the order Cypseli, * * * just outside 

 the enormous Passerine circle, but tangent 

 to a point in its periphery opposite the swal- 

 lows. * * * For the Trochili, I have already 

 proposed a separate order * * * and am to- 

 day more convinced than ever of the correct- 

 ness of that proposal." On page 369 Dr. 

 Shufeldt says further regarding humming- 

 birds and swifts: "They differ essentially in 

 their pteryloses and in the number of their 

 secondaries." 



I have just completed a careful examination 

 of S3 humming-birds, representing 11 species, 

 ranging in size from Mellisuga humilis to 

 Coeligena clemencice, and 15 swifts, represent- 

 ing 10 different species, including Collocalia, 

 Hemiprogne, and Macropteryx. I have also 

 studied carefully the ptcrylography of 17 

 goat-suckers, representing 8 species. I have, 

 therefore, had a considerably larger number of 

 species at my disposal than even Dr. Shufeldt 



