54 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
THE RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. — All our standard works on American 
ornithology describe the Ruby-crowned Kinglet as presenting little o 
no sexual differences in color, both males and females being said to pos- 
sess the red crest when mature; those without it being regarded as 
young or immature birds. I have To ng questioned whether this is so, but 
have not of late had an opportunity of arriving at a satisfactory conclu- 
sion. Mr. Jillson, writing to me recently about them, says he thinks 
there is some mistake about them. e says ‘‘as far as I know, all nat- 
uralists describe the female as having the red on the head. I have taken 
from three to a dozen every season in May; have dissected most of them 
but have never found one that had the red that was not a male 
never taken any without the red until after the former had all, or nearly 
all, gone north. Those without the red have always proved to be females, 
and I have never heard one of them sing; but I do not think I ever shot 
one with the red crown but that I had heard it sing." 
What now is the experience of others? Does the female ever have the 
red crown? —J. A. ALLEN. 
THE CROCODILE IN FLORIDA. — Professor Wyman describes, in the 
* American Journal of Science" for January, the skull of a true Croco- 
dile shot near the mouth of the Miami River, Florida. He remarks that 
‘it has been shown by different paleontologists, especially by Dr. Leidy 
and Professor Cope, that several species of Crocodilians existed in North 
A 
extinct. At the present time two living species of true Crocodiles, viz: 
C. acutus and C. rhombifer, are known in South America, and both doe 
as far north as Cuba and San Domingo, but we have not been able to find 
a record of the presence of either of them within the limits of the United 
States, the Alligator being the only representative of the family to which 
it belongs." He considers the Florida specimen as the Crocodilus acutus. 
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). — The recent introduction of this 
interesting and useful little foreigner to Boston, with a view to his 
i t 
in such circum- 
pigs they appeared to be quite at home and vastly enjoying themselves. 
is a social, bold, cunning and gregarious bird; domestic, yet impatient 
