70 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



plants and animals and often affording- a 

 basis for specific distinctions. 



In the late Dr. Charles Mohr's ' Plant Life 

 of Alabama,'* which deals more exhaiistively 

 with geological features than any state 

 flora previously published, these superficial 

 sands are designated as 'Ozark sands' (doubt- 

 less named for Ozark, Ala.), a term which I 

 have not seen used elsewhere. This formation 

 is only mentioned three or four times in the 

 work, however; so Dr. Mohr perhaps failed to 

 perceive its important bearing on the distribu- 

 tion of the flora. If the 'Ozark sands' should 

 ever be regarded as distinct from the typical 

 Columbia, the superficial sands of South 

 Georgia would of course be classed with 

 them. 



On my travels during the past summer fre- 

 quent use was made of Mr. McGee's map 

 (accompanying his monograph already men- 

 tioned) of the areal distribution of the La-, 

 fayette and Columbia formations, which I 

 found to be remarkably accurate (in Georgia, 

 at least), considering the small scale on which" 

 it is drawn and the large amomit of territory 

 covered by its author. Most of the discrep- 

 ancies between the map and the observed con- 

 ditions were naturally found in those regions 

 never explored by Mr. McGee or any other 

 geologist. 



With a good series of maps, especially topo- 

 graphic maps, of the southeastern coastal 

 plain it would not be difficult to trace with 

 considerable accuracy the areas covered by the 

 Lafayette and Columbia formations, but no 

 topographic maps of any considerable portion 

 of the coastal plain of Georgia have yet been 

 made, and the data for them are as yet very 

 meager. It is not even possible to get level 

 notes from all the railroads in South Georgia, 

 and the same condition doubtless exists in the 

 corresponding' portions of the adjoining states. 

 KoLAND M. Harper. 



College Point, N. Y. 



instinct in song birds. method of breeding 



in hand-reared robins (sierula 



migratoria). 



On June 17, 1902, a pair of robins (Merula 



migratoria) confined in a large room with some 



* ' Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb..' Vol. 6, 1901. 



hundred and fifty other birds, of various sorts, 

 hatched eggs which had been laid for some 

 twelve days. This pair of robins were birds 

 about four j'ears old, and were what are known 

 as hand-reared birds. I had taken them when 

 very young from wild parents and raised them 

 by hand. 



On examining the nest after the second day 

 I found there was only one young bird. It 

 appeared to be perfectly healthy and normal, 

 and so matters went on until the fourth day. 

 On the morning of the fourth day I found the 

 young robin had disappeared from the nest, but 

 the female bird was still brooding. It now 

 occurred to me to substitute two wild young, 

 rather older, from a nest of robins that had 

 been hatched out of doors in the yard. I in- 

 troduced these two young birds to the parent 

 birds, with some remonstrance on their part, 

 but within five minutes of the time when I 

 placed them in the nest the old birds were 

 feeding them, and were apparently as solicit- 

 ,-ous for them as if they had been their own. 

 At the close of the day, the substitution 

 having been accomplished early, and I having 

 watched the birds closely, it appeared to me 

 that only one of the two young bii-ds was 

 being fed, and I took the other from the nest 

 to rear it by hand. 



Both young birds are now going about, be- 

 ginning to fly, learning to eat unaided, 

 etc., I feeding one, and the male parent robin 

 feeding the other. 



The following comments suggest themselves 

 to me : 



To go back in the history of the parent birds, 

 they were birds that were taken from a nest 

 in May, 1898, and were naked and blind, prob- 

 ably not more than three days old when 

 adopted. The usual method of procedure 

 which I have employed in rearing wild birds by 

 hand is to take an entire brood and nest, and 

 keeping the young birds as undisturbed as pos- 

 sible, to do practically as near what the old 

 birds do as is attainable. 



It is unnecessary to suggest that the parent 

 birds I am speaking of are healthy and vigor- 

 ous, because the very fact that they have bred 

 in captivity seems to determine this. A word 

 seems essential to their method of nest-build- 



