SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 81. 



had taken ten hours to construct the nest with 

 its hinged door, another spider having made a 

 hole large enough to conceal itself in two hours. 

 The method of digging was the same in the 

 main as that described by the speaker for the 

 tarantula. The young when they emerge at 

 once build their own miniature nests, which are 

 renewed every spring until they reach the full 

 size. Based on his study of a Lycosid, the 

 speaker had predicted that the enemy of the 

 trap-door spider would be found to be a diurnal 

 wasp. Dr. Davidson had established the fact 

 that such is the case and that the attacking 

 species is ParapompMlis planatus Fox. 



Mr. H. C. Mercer made a report on his recent 

 exploration of certain caves in Tennessee which 

 he had been able to prosecute under the pa- 

 tronage of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 mainly through the liberality of Dr. William 

 Pepper. In Zirkel's cave, on Dumpling Creek, 

 Jefferson county, Tennessee, crusts of breccia 

 projected from the walls and hung from the roof. 

 From this material the teeth of the tapir, pec- 

 cary, etc., projected, while in the cave earth 

 below were found bones, nuts, two pieces of 

 Indian pottery and fragments of mica, probably 

 indicating Indian cave burial. There were 

 therefore two ages indicated : one ancient, by 

 the breccia, and the other by the cave earth, 

 comparatively recent. All the fossil remains 

 belonged to the breccia and there was no asso- 

 ciation between them and the indications of 

 human life. 



Another cave, on the Tennessee river, under 

 Lookout Mountain, Hamilton county, Tennes- 

 see, presented a floor of two layers, the black 

 top one of three or three and a-half feet in 

 thickness composed of Indian relics, and another 

 of- yellow earth containing a few animal re- 

 mains, but no indication of human existence. 

 Mylodon and Tapirus fragments found some 

 time ago close to the bottom of the upper layer 

 had probably been scraped up from the lower. 

 Neither, therefore, did this cave present any 

 certain data for the advancement of the date of 

 man's antiquity. On the contrary, the evidence 

 supported the belief that pleistocene or paleo- 

 lithic man had not existed in that region. 



On penetrating the forbidding entrance of 

 Big Bone Cave, near Canly Fork River, Van 



Buren county, Tennessee, he had found nine 

 hundred feet in, the bones of Megalonyx still 

 bearing articular cartilages. Fragments of 

 torches were found beneath the Sloth bones, 

 probably buried by burrowing rats. 



Prof. Edw. D. Cope commented on the fossil 

 bones collected in the caves described by Mr. 

 Mercer. The presence of cartilages on the 

 Megalonyx bones indicated for them an age 

 certainly not more remote than the existence of 

 man on this continent. Other bones belonging 

 to young individuals were larger than corre- 

 sponding ones found at Port Kennedy, indicating 

 the validity of the two species, Megalonyx 

 Wheatleyi and M, Jeffersonii. Mr. Mercer had 

 also collected remains of fifteen or twenty 

 species of birds, six fishes, one batrachian, four 

 tortoises, one rattlesnake and nineteen mam- 

 mals. The special value of Mr. Mercer's care- 

 ful work was commented on. The peccary is 

 found in Zirkel's cave, although no trace of it 

 appears in the Lookout Mountain cave. Sev- 

 eral undescribed species were indicated. 



Edw. J. Nolan, 

 Recording Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Analytic Psychology. By G. F. Stout. London,. 

 Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York, Mac- 

 millan & Co. 1896. Vol. i. Pp. xv+289. 

 Vol. ii. Pp. v+306. 



A System of Medicine. By many writers. Edited 

 by Thomas Clifford Allbutt. New York and 

 London, Macmillan & Co. Vol. i. Pp. xxxix 

 + 978. $5.00. 



Der Lichtsinn augenloser Tiere. By Dr. Wili- 

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Familiar Trees and their Leaves. By F. Schuy- 

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A Concise Sand-book of British Birds. By H. 

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Proceedings of the American Association for the 

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 Springfield, Mass., August-September, 1895. 

 Salem, published by the Permanent Secre- 

 tary. 1896. Pp. cxix+414. 



