Mar. 30, 1 888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



301 



Disease Heredity. — Dr. Brown Sequard and Mr. 

 Combemaille, in a memoir submitted to the Academy of 

 Sciences, describe the morbid aflfections transmitted to 

 descendants of animals which have been submitted to an 

 alcoholic regime, and especially to the abuse of absinthe. 

 — La Nature. 



Migration of Birds. — Mr. H. Seebohn has recently 

 delivered a lecture on this subject in the Tyne Theatre, 

 Newcastle. He divided our migratory birds into three 

 classes ; those which, like the swallows and the nightin- 

 gale, breed with us, and go southwards to winter ; those 

 like the fieldfare, which breed in the far north and come 

 here to winter ; and those few species which pass through 

 this country in spring and autumn, but neither breed nor 

 winter here. All birds breed in the coldest part of their 

 migrations. Species which breed within the tropics never 

 migrate. 



A Blistering Cicada. — MM. Arnand and Charles 

 Brongniant describe, is the Comptes rendiis, a new vesi- 

 cating insect from China. The species in question is not 

 a Cantharis, nor a Mylabris, nor indeed, a beetle at all. 

 It is a cicada. Cicada sangtiindenta, belonging, of course 

 to the Hemipterous order. It is very common in Tonquin, 

 where it feeds upon the Ailanthits fcetidus. By the natives 

 it is known as the Cha-ki. Is nearly one and half inches 

 in length, and a black colour, with a red spot upon the 

 head, and the red spots upon the mesothorax. The 

 abdomen is red ; the legs and face-wings, are black, and 

 the hind-wings are transparent. A quantity of these 

 insects brought to Europe did not produce distinct vesi- 

 cation, and on careful analysis no cantharidine could be 

 detected in their bodies. 



WILD PONIES ON THE SOUTHERN 

 COAST OF CAROLINA. 



ON the banks or sand bars that divide the Atlantic 

 Ocean from Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, just 

 inside the lighthouse that marks the dreaded Cape Look- 

 out, there is to be found a hardy race of ponies, known 

 as " bankers." These ponies have lived there as long as 

 the tradition of the oldest inhabitant dates back. Entirely 

 surrounded by deep water at all seasons, having no com- 

 munication with the mainland, and being barren of 

 vegetation, save a scanty growth of sedge-grass and low 

 shrubs, the banks have remained uninhabited, except by 

 these ponies, which seem to thrive and multiply in spite 

 of the hardships to which they are exposed. How they 

 first came there, or of what origin, is conjecture, and 

 tradition merely hints the story of a violent storm, with 

 its attendant shipwreck and loss of all on board, save a 

 lot of ponies from some European port, which were cast 

 upon the sands, and, surviving the storm, became the 

 progenitors of the race now so numerous. 



Having to rely on instinct alone, these animals are a 

 subject of study to the naturalist, as they are a prey not 

 only to the driving sands, but to the storms of the cape, 

 that break upon and over the narrow sand bar, and 

 change with each recurring hurricane the topography of 

 the country. The ponies, choosing the protected side of 

 the hillocks, burrow deep into the yielding sands, and 

 stamp out a protected stall, where they take refuge from 

 the storm ; and, while many are destroyed, their number 

 has increased. — American Agriculturist. 



EXTINCT NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



THOSE species of North American birds termed 

 " lost," and excluded from many of the lists in 

 consequence, are at present of considerable interest to 

 many ornithologists, both from the fact that a thorough 

 search may, at any time, reveal the existence of some 

 one, and that within the last few years, two at least, the 

 great auk I^Aka impemns) and the Labrador duck {Camp- 

 tolaimus labradorius) are believed to have become abso- 

 lutely extinct. 



The first of these, A. impennis, has been written and 

 rewritten upon so much of late that we do not wish to 

 say much concerning it here. " It formerly inhabited 

 our coast from Massachusetts north, nearly to the Arctic 

 circle. In Iceland it has been traced down to 1844, while, 

 in the " American Naturalist," vol. vi., page 368, is re- 

 corded the finding of a single dead specimen in the 

 vicinity of St. Augustine, Labrador, in November, 1870.'' 

 Unfortunately, the " character, date, and disposition of 

 this alleged individual are questionable, and it seems 

 improbable that the species lived down to so late a 

 period." At present it is accounted extinct, but, with all 

 due respect to the opinions of others, there seems to us 

 to be still a chance of its being rediscovered, and, strange 

 as it may appear, this chance we would place solely with 

 the Arctic explorer. In the reports of different expedi- 

 tions we learn that after a certain latitude has been 

 reached, the tide of migration changes its course, and 

 that birds, as well as mammals move, in a northerly 

 direction. This is pretty sure evidence that somewhere 

 at the far north, beyond the region of snow and ice, there 

 is a milder climate to be found, and one undoubtedly 

 teeming with animal life. If, in the years to come, some 

 one succeeds in reaching the Pole, and discovers this land 

 (if existing), does it not seem reasonable to suppose that 

 the great Auk will be found among its inhabitants ? 

 which, having experienced the persecutions of man, has 

 sought safety and retirement within its borders. This 

 last borders somewhat upon the Utopian we know ; yet 

 time may prove it true, in part at least. 



Concerning the Labrador or pied duck, there is still 

 some chance of its being taken, as recently two instances 

 have come under notice in which the birds in question 

 were picked and eaten by the shooter, and afterward, 

 when too late, thought to have been specimens of this 

 bird. In both cases the description tallies very closely 

 with that of a cabinet skin. In a recent number of 

 Forest and Stream, Dr. Shufeldt gives an able article 

 on this subject, and strongly holds forth that the bird 

 may still be found. 



Leaving these so-called extinct birds, we come to the 

 lost species proper, or those which, through scarcity or 

 diminutiveness, have eluded the efforts of collectors since 

 the original specimens were taken. Four of these have 

 not been seen since the time of Adubon and Wilson, 

 and are known only from their works. These are : The 

 Carbonated warbler (Z3e«rfro/fa carbonata), Blue mountain 

 warbler {Dendroica montana). Small-headed warbler 

 (Sylvania [?] microcephala), and Cuvier's kinglet {Rcguliis 

 cuvieri). The others are scarcely of more recent date, 

 and are : Townsend's bunting (Spiza townscndii), Brew- 

 ster's linnet (Acant/n's brewstcrii), Brachman's warbler 

 {Helininthophila bachmani), and the Cincinnati warbler 

 {Hebninthophila cincimiatiensis.) 



Eight species once known to science now lost ! 



Let us take them systematically, and try to discover 



