58 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
THE Cow Birp.—In the second number of ‘ Nature,” Profes 
Newton has an — Ü Antennae and suggestive article on Wis 
variation observed in Cuckoos' eggs, which seems to depend upon, or to 
e in some way connected with the characters of the eggs of the birds se- 
lected by the parasite as the foster-parents of its offspring. Has — 
of the sort been determined regarding the eggs of the Cow-bird? 
— vary, in the first place, to anything like the extent that the peers S 
; and secondly, do they ever tend unmistakably to assimilate in marking 
o ^ ide eggs of birds usually selected by the Cow-bird as its dupes? Or, 
‘again are the birds so chosen, those whose eggs have any special resem- 
blance to a Cow-bird's? It is not always so, I know; but is it so some- 
times, frequently, or usually? The subject is worthy of the attention of 
our ornithologists, from whom it would be well to hear. — ELLIOTT CoUuEs. 
OCCURRENCE OF THE BROWN PELICAN IN MASSACHUSETTS. — Since writ- 
ing **Notes on Some of the Rarer Birds of Moisetinsbtm," I have re- 
ceived, through the kindness of Mr. Martin, further information respecting 
the Pelicans mentioned in the February number of the NATURALIST 
gentleman who saw the flock referred to there, and who fired at them, 
fuscus) instead of White Pelivans. They came in from the sea, appar- 
ntly much fatigued, and alighted on the beach near the Sankaty dur. 
lighthouse, where they remained till driven away by being fired a 
White Pelican seems, however, to have been recently killed on nito 
Point, Nantucket, as previously our: The Brown Pelican I have not 
o occur previously so far north. — J. A. ALLEN 
T IPMUN of our jog was noticed a few days ago 
busily nibbling at a snake that had been recently killed. He could hardly 
be driven away, and soon retürned to his feast when his tormentors had 
withdrawn a short distance. Does the Tamias striatus in other regions 
possess such carnivorous propensities? — A. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich. 
€ back yard of a small restaurant in this city 
as killed at the same time. There is an albino rat at a bird-store in 
buy J. BEAL. ` 
gesamte qus prs OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. , 1869.— Mr. Tryon called the attention of the 
members n E mens pt Amnicola grana Say, from Carter County. Mis- 
souri, presented this evening. This very minute species was apparently 
o SS 
Mr. Tryon had discovered it, six or eight years ago, existing in consider- 
able numbers in ditches in the southern part of the city of Philadelphia. 
