12 
season is diminished in proportion, as, of course, no 
new buds can be formed. 
This late blooming is not at all uncommon, although 
I do not remember having noticed any as early as Sep- 
tember. One season in the first week of November the 
pear trees in the garden were quite white with blos- 
soms, but unfortunately I cannot recall the year. 
Dr. Mendelson may enjoy avery pretty bouquet in 
February or March by placing in water in a sunny win- 
dow the fruit-bearing branches of pears, apples or 
cherries; in a short time they will develop their beauti- 
ful and fragrant blossoms. F. J. THompson. 
New Brighton, Staten Island. 
A CORRECTION. 
Science is so generally exact in following copy that I 
must have left out one important word in a recent com- 
munication. I should have said that the early Iroquois 
had no council wampum. When the Dutch came they 
obtained it fast enough, but itis found on no earlier 
sites in their territory. The later ones have furnished 
it in abundance. 
I wish to record the occurrence of the thick-billed 
guillemot in this part of New York. A young one was 
shot on the Seneca River, at Baldwinsville, Dec. 15, 
1893. It has not been reported so far inland before. 
Two species of cormorant have been shot on Onondaga 
Lake, and I heard that a pelican was recently killed 
there, but have not seen it. W. M. BeaucHamp. 
Baldwinsville, N. Y., Dec. 28, 1893. 
LATE-BLOOMING TREES. 
Trees or shrubs if stripped of their foliage during the 
summer will put out new buds and new leaves and 
blossoms. It is a common saying with farmers that 
when a tree blossoms in the fall it is about to die, which 
is generally the case, as it mostly occurs on diseased 
trees. On such a tree the leaves will often turn yellow 
and fall off during a dry summer. The later rains will 
put a little new life into it, and it will often put forth 
buds and blossom. The same occurs if healthy trees 
are stripped of their foliage during the summer. 
SCIENCE, 
| Vol. XX1II1. No. 576 
The phenomenon of ‘‘the late blossoming of trees,” 
referred to by Dr. Walter Mendelson in Science of Dec. 
15, 1893, was observed here. During the latter part of 
September and the first of October great numbers of 
fruit trees were in bloom, and on many green fruit set 
and grew; but they all occurred in the track of a severe 
hail storm which in August passed over a strip of 
country about half-a-mile in width, cutting the foliage 
completely from the trees. Possibly Brielle and Alpine, 
N. J., were in the track of that hail storm. 
Tuomas S. STEVENS. 
Trenton, N. J., Dec. 28, 1893. 
AS TO FEIGNED DEATH IN SNAKES. 
Wuitr on a trip to the Bad Lands in northwest 
Nebraska and South Dakota in the summer of 1892, col- - 
lections of rattlesnakes were made. Being much in- 
terested in the recent articles on ‘‘Feigned Death in 
Snakes,” I have the following statement to make: 
Whenever a freshly captured rattlesnake was ‘intro- 
duced in the box with the former captures it usually 
vented its rage on them by striking and biting. Noill 
effects whatever ensued. Also, when teased, the snakes 
would bite one another. We lost no rattlesnakes what- 
ever on the trip. We often teased the snakes before 
capture, and in not one instance did they show any ten- 
dency to feign death. H. H. Everert. 
Lincoln, Neb., Dec. 27, 1893. 
THE LEAST BITTERN. 
Last summer a wounded bittern, the smallest of 
them all, Botaurus exilis, came into the grounds of the 
New York State Fishery Commission, at this place, and 
as its wing was hanging down one of my men caught it 
and amputated the wing. It remained and fished in a 
swampy bit of land where the minnows are plenty, in 
a poolfed by tide water, and promises to winter there. - 
Its habit of remaining motionless when I approach it 
slowly and in plain sight is interesting, perched on a 
stick, or standing in the mud with its neck drawn up 
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