_ ` nest he spent most of his time taking nearly the form of a 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 253 
and made a nice nest for himself from the part discarded as food; in this 
all. He al- 
ways exhibited a readiness to bite, and it was not safe to touch him with 
the hand. One day I carried him, in his small cage, to my lecture room, 
and afterwards put him in my private room and left him alone. When I 
Without much trouble I secured him in his box again, and carried him 
home and put him in a large cage in my cellar which is well lighted and 
ventilated. About midway between the top and bottom of this cage isa 
shelf which touches the bars or slats in front, and extends backwards 
about half the depth of the cage. This shelf was put in so that the 
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of eight or ten inches below the lower edge of the vertical shelf for the 
whole width of the cage, and when he was disturbed he often run through 
this hole instead of going along on the bottom. 
I was interested to see that he used everything he could get to enlarge 
gnawing, he squeezed out through the hole, scaled the cellar wall, and 
escaped through an open cellar window. A few weeks afterwards he 
was killed by a farmer’s dog, and I have sent his skin to Mr. Jillson to be 
mounted. 
Mr. Hitchcock of this town, informs me that he has seen a living white 
woodchuck in New Lebano, N. Y.—S. TENNEY, Williams College. 
Rare Brrps mx Nova Scotia. —I observe in the last number of the 
NATURALIST a note on the occurrence of the Pomarine Jager (Lestris pom- 
arinus), on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, in July last. On the 
o 
uary last, the Purple Gallinule (Qallinula martinica, Baird). This is the 
first instance on record of its capture in Nova Scotia. — J. MATTHEW 
Jowrs, Halifax, N. S. 
