250 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
^ntmnl l§istorg. 
[ 7 his Department Is under the charge of a competent Naturalist, 
Indorsed by the Smithsonian Institution, and will henceforth be made a 
special feature of this paper. All communications, notes, queries, re¬ 
marks, and seasonal observations will receive careful attention.] 
WOODCOCK ON HER NEST. 
L A8T July Mr. McIntyre, the photographer at Alexan¬ 
dria Bay, Thousand Islands, River St. Lawrence, 
presented us with a very pretty picture of a rolled grouse 
on her nest, taken in the woods near by; and moreover, we 
were invited to visit the old lady herself at the time when 
she was engrossed by her domestic affairs. This photo¬ 
graph was of a character so rare and unique that we should 
have engraved it for the benefit of our patrons, though we 
neglected to do so. We did the next best thing, however, 
which was to send it across the ocean to the London Illuth 
tratcd Sporting and Dramatic Nem, by which it was en¬ 
graved in most accurate and attractive form, and this en¬ 
graving waB afterwards transferred to the Chicago Field, 
both papers courteously acknowledging the favor. 
home and counted it was somewhat surprising to find over 
fifty species, only nine of which had been hitherto known to 
exist in the Central Province, where an extreme paucity of 
species, owing to the nature of ita climate and soil, had 
been prophesied. Five of these species were new to sci¬ 
ence, and are described and figured. 
The eastern slope of the Snowy Range is abrupt, and re¬ 
ceives comparatively Jittle rain. Westward of the summit, 
however, certain genera— Zonites, Vitrina , Vallonia, Patula , 
Pupa, Succinea, and Pmdixim —were everywhere represent¬ 
ed. Vitrinas and pupas were, perhaps, the most common 
forms, the latter being particularly numerous on tho Sier¬ 
ras in the southeastern corner of the territory, where tho 
new species, Papilla altieola was traced up to the very limit 
of timber growth, and upon the face of precipitous cliffs 
of volcanic rock, in whoso clefts only tufts of grass could 
gain a foothold. With the latter shell also occurred Borne 
small succineas, and a mollusk with a delicate, box-shaped 
Shell, only one-tenth of an inch in diameter. Plenty of 
these little fellows, ns lively as could he, were to he found 
at the astonishing height of 11,500 feet. They proved to 
be undescribed, and to belong to the sub-genus Microphysa, 
the two American species of which, heretofore known, are 
heights exceeding 5,000 feet, and 10 species have been 
found above 10,000 feet. It is Bate to say that, where 
there is moisture, a goodly collection of shells can he made 
in tho mountains of the territories all the way up to tho 
timber line. 
The results of this almost pioneer study into the geo¬ 
graphical distribution in the mountainous west will prove 
very important in future investigations. It shows the 
character of the molluscan fauna of that region; it shows 
that a range, or any number of ranges, of high mountains 
do not oppose an insurmountable obstacle to the migration, 
either of land or fresh water moliusks; that shells, while 
easily conforming to .extraordinary surroundings, are at 
the same time readily modified by their environment, and 
that this inter-montunic region is not so deficient as has 
been supposed, either in the number of its species or in 
representatives of adjoining faunas; but that on the con-; 
trary it is favorable to p’ulmonatc growth, except iu re¬ 
aped to the scarcity of lime in the soil, to which cause 
we may probably attribute the fact that tho more minute, 
forms aro in large majority. 
The Nottaii, Cunt —For several years half a dozen 
young gentlemen interested in birds, among whom were 
Wm. Brewster, Ruthven Deane, W. D. Scott, Henry 
Purdie, H. Bj Bailey, Henry W. Henshaw, and C. J. May¬ 
nard, have been meeting once a week in Cambridge, Mass., 
WOODCOCK ON HER NEST. 
Herewith we give a transcript of a photograph, which is 
not only quite as fine, hut much more rarely seen—a 
woodcock on her nest- and for llii-t we are indebted, first 
to our correspondent Watts T. Loomis, of Little Falls, N. 
Y., and next to the exquisite skill of the engraver, A, W. 
Roberts. The bird was discovered in this position on the 
21st of April, 1876, and had at that time four eggs In her 
nest, yellowish brown spotted with darker brown. Says 
the donor:— 
“The picture is the work of our brother sportsman Mr. 
Wm. H. Abbot t (an artist) of this place. The nest is, as 
you will see, composed entirely of dead forest leaves, 
and is situated in the midst or a thicket of hard wood 
brush on high land, but with springy laud in near vicinity. 
To give you an idea of the time this nest was built, I state 
it was discovered 21st. of April. On the 1st of May the 
grasB iu this neighborhood had slarted to grow only in the 
most sunny and favorable localities. The first barn swal¬ 
lows were seen here on the 30th of April. So you see our 
birdie took an early start, meaning to have Her birds ready 
by 3d of July, if there should be no amendment to the 
game laws, 11 
--» ■ ♦- — 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN MOLLUSCA. 
T HE Report of Hayden’s U. S. Geological Survey for 
1874, has just been issued. The zoology of the sur 
vey that year was under the care of Ernest Ingersoll (now in 
charge of the Natural History department of this journal, 
whose report forms a portion of the volume. The mammals 
Of the Rooky Mountains have long been well known, and the 
case is somewhat the same with birds, tire enthusiastic la¬ 
bors of Henshaw, Aiken, Allen, Ooues, and others having 
given us very much information of the species aud their 
habitats. The fishes and reptiles have received some at¬ 
tention, and are not numerous, except in the South, and 
much knowledge has been gained of the insects, Crustacea 
and worms of the West, But the moliusks of the moun¬ 
tains—laud, pond and river snails and fresh-water mussels 
—had heen almost entirely neglected, and this seeming, 
therefore, to be the field most needing cultivation, Mr. In- 
gersoJi’a attention was chiefly turned to it. Something was 
found at nearly every camp, and when the collection was 
natives of the Gulf coast and the West Indies. Why this 
species should depart so far from the habits of its conge¬ 
ners as to thrive best in the arctic climate of these moun¬ 
tain tops, is strange. This Microphysa was afterwards met 
with in the valleys routh of these Sierras, and in the moun¬ 
tains west of North Park. In this same southern group cf 
mountains many other shells were found—at a lesser alti¬ 
tude, but where water froze every night in August—of tho 
same species as existed in other parts of the territory. In 
a sunken, marshy lake south of tho Sierra San Junn, were 
found thousands of various specieB of Limnea and Planar- 
bis marked by extreme fragility, and showing large varia¬ 
tion among themselves. But the astonishing fact about 
this pond was, that on the shore were found dead shells of 
the marine genus Truncatella, a broken Area, and small 
living salt water crabs. “That these are Burvivors of the 
period probably comparatively recent,” says the writer, 
“when here was a salt water marsh that remained caught 
in this basin among the hills after the country for a long 
distance south of it had become dry land, seems very evi¬ 
dent." A new specieB of coil shell (Uelisoma plexata, Ing.) 
marked by a twisted appearance, resulting from a change 
of plane in tire revolution, was discovered in St. Mary's 
Lake, Antelope Park, another isolated basin, and occasions 
many remarks upou distortions among fresh water molluB- 
ca. After mentioning the moliusks inhabiting the bitter sa¬ 
line lakes in the San Luis Valley, Mr. IngersoJl tells us tiiat 
moliusks seem to flourish in mineral springs of both hot 
and cold water the world over; and describes at length the 
curious factB connected with the abundant presence of 
moliusks in tho variously-composed mineral springs of 
Middle Park, where the temperature of the water reaches 
100" Fahr. 
Bringing together all that had been done before—of 
which a careful bibliographical list is added to the paper 
—and including his own work, Mr. Ingersoll found that 
138 nominal specieB had been recorded as occurring be¬ 
tween the Great Plains and the Sierra Nevada*, Of these, 
49 were also Californian species; 15 occurred also in the 
Eastern United Status; 8 hailed from the Colorado Desert; 
7 were found all over tire continent, and 8 all over the 
world; aud 3 belonged in the Eastern Province, west of 
the Alleghanies only. This left 47 nominal species, whose 
range, so far as yet known, is confined to the Central 
Province. Many of the specific names in this list, how¬ 
ever, rest upon very insecure foundations, and will no 
doubt soon be reduced to synonyms. With respect to 
their vertical distribution, 05 species out of the 139 inhabit 
and comparing notes upon their favorite subject. Several 
of them had large private collections, and therefore were 
able to decide many knotty points, and contribute not a 
little to each other's information, and zeal. Two years 
ago a more permanent organization was effected, regular- 
meetings were held throughout most of the year, and the 
little society took the name of the “Nuttall Ornithological 
Club," in honor of that eminent ornithologist whose home' 
was in Cambridge. The club still exclude professional or¬ 
nithologists from its circle, however, satisfying itself with 
nnmbering among its Corresponding Members moBt of the 
young ornithologists throughout the country. Another 
Btep in advance has now been taken by the club in the pub¬ 
lication of the first number of a series of Quarterly Bulle¬ 
tins in neat pamphlet form. It is proposed by the club to 
issue sixteen pages quarterly. Starting, however, with 
twenty-eight, they desire to he able to continue at that size. 
We heartily hope their pecuniary success will justify it. 
This number is adorned by a beautifully executed plate of 
JlelminthopJiaga leuwbrom'hiutie, a new species described by 
Wm. Brewster, who collected it near Boston. It moBt 
cloBeiy resembles tho golden-winged warbler, but the en¬ 
tire absence of black or ashy on the cheeks and throat, 
tho silky-white superciliary line, and the white lower eye¬ 
lid are distinguishing murks. C. J. Maynard gives the 
history of the recorded occurrences of tho English buzzard 
(Butea mlywris) in North America, and concludes that it 
may be a regular visitor iu the Northwest. Important con¬ 
tributions to our knowledge of tho nidifiention of the war¬ 
blers are made by J. Warren in describing the nesting of 
tlie golden-winged in Massachusetts, and by C. M. Jones 
in his paper on the breeding of the black-throated blue 
warbler in Connecticut; while H. B. Bailey prints inter¬ 
esting notes of the birds lie found breeding on Cobb’s 
Island, Va., which seems to be a favorite spot for sea 
and shore fowls. “Notes on the Rough-winged Swallow 
in Pennsylvania,” by Waller Van Fleet, and Mr. Brews¬ 
ter’s article on the occurrence of certain rare birds in New 
Eugland are of the same nature, and will be read with, 
great interest, Ruthven Deane, who has made a specialty 
of gathering monstrosities of plumage into his collection, 
gives an astonishingly long list of cases of albinism and mel¬ 
anism which have come under bis observation. The most 
valuable article in the number is a comparison of the two 
little flycatchers, Emindonatn J raillit and acadicus, which 
have proved such stumbling-blocks in the wsy of collectors, 
