NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 51 
Dr. Wal c is of opinion that each coccosphere is just as much an 
independent structure as Thalassicolla or util E that, as in 
other cases, ‘‘nutrition is effected by a vital act,” whic eld the 
organism to extract from the surrounding E the C: adapted 
for its nutrition. These are at length converted into its sarcode and 
shell material. In fact, in these lowest, simplest forms we find evidence 
of the working of an inherent vital power, and in them nutrition seems 
to be conducted on the same principle as in the highest and most com- 
plex beings. In all cases the process involves, besides ^ je 
chemical € aroi, à vital actions, which cannot be im 
which cannot be explained by physics and riii ipie BEAL, 
in Monthly Masacopisit Journal. 
m AND INsTINCT. — Under this title Sir S. W. Baker, Pee: a 
chapter of his “ Eight Year's Wanderings in Ceylon," to symptoms 
the eshte faculty in animals, and narrates a story of his hound Bins. 
beard,” which was called to mind by your account of the Spider and Mud- 
URALIS 
divided by jungles into so-called patinas, with a large and deep river flow- 
ing through the centre. The pack had disappeared, but after a long time 
spent in searching for d Sir Samuel saw from one of the grassy 
knolls that commanded the patina, an elk swimming out from the jungle, 
and succeeded with the gray hounds, remaining by him, in running her 
down shortly after she landed: 
1 s were — WD the elk, when we presently heard old spectari voice far away In 
the jungle. elk, w n to a hill which ndr 
iE ince pees and kept a bright lookout. We soon discovered iie e was true upon t 
same gam e, wt we watched his Pyth an of Aie — anxious to sce whether he could inus 
On his entrance to the Patina byt "he: jivera bank. he immediately took to water and swam 
across the rhe id here We carem ully hu MMFT e for several hundred yards down the 
river, but othin d to th the point from which the river flowed. 
Here - us “took be water, and, pei A = the agi from which he had at first 
started Back he returned after his fruitless 
search, and once more he took to water, I be kv to dispair of i possibility of his finding; 
but the ana? on hou md x" ner. eating sei gti visio the str pipe crossing and recrossing 
from either ength he reached the spot 
where I knew that the elk had landed, and we eagerly niin uM see if he would pass the 
secat ud he wee now several yards from the bank. He wen pearly abreast of the > spot, when he 
and awa di pe^ y upon th e scent, while I could not help shouting, 
" rusian d r old Bluebea -— In a few minutes he was by the side of the dead elk— a speci- 
men of a true hound, who certainly had exhibited a large share of reason.’ " — P. 
MALFORMATIONS IN INsECTS.— In the summer of 1868 I observed on 
several occasions along the south shore of Lake Superior, specimens of 
the Dragon-fly with a curious malformation, or arrest of development of 
the wing. In an individual I specially observed, the skin had just been 
cast, and the wings, not having yet hardened, were quite soft and delicate 
to the touch. In one of the wings was a lump-like unexpanded portion 
reducing the size of the limb nearly one-half. The malformation was 
