NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 623 
like tribe, or the curved-beak tribe, wn form, size, is everything for 
their peculiar method of obtaining ratio 
The Toucan feeds on insects, which s 2 in the corolla of flowers; 
it especially delights in tubular corollas, and has a great fondness for kem 
rich, scarlet, fuschia-like clusters of the Rose de Monta, of Guayan 
These clusters he seizes near the calyx, and by longitudinal i 
of his powerful mandibles, aided by their serrated edges, saws them off, 
and then by his horny and fimbriated tongue, separates the insect portion 
from the vegetable, and swallows that which his palate approves of, like 
any other sensible bird. To see him hop from branch to branch, reach 
out his long, ponderous jaws, seize his breakfast, saw it off, as one sees 
a butcher in his stall, to see the parts rejected fall to the ground in petal- 
iferous showers, and he maintain his equipoise, has been one of the most 
ost mortem examinations of his injestæ, and have always found the 
shields and remains of insects the most abundant in his craw. —R. P. 
STEVENS. 
PHYSELLA NOT A FRESH-WATER SHELL. — Mr. Tryon called the aem 
tion of the Lig sa section of the Sahai ak Academy of N 
Sciences, to the curious error committed by several oap rains in 
treating Berendtia pris sella) Nim as a fluviatile mollusk. He sup- 
posed that the resemblance of the first generic name given to Physa was 
of species as illustrated by the “groups” or subgenera of Helices, estab- 
lished by Albe ers, and stated his conviction that nowhere in the animal 
ingdom could more conclusive evidences of the truth of Darwintanian 
be adduced 
GEOLOGY. 
Dm a GLACIER FLOW FROM LAKE HURON INTO LAKE ERIE? I find on 
page 193, of Vol. 4 of the AMERICAN NATURALIST, an article by Professor 
B. M i 
Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, are basins excavated 
in undisturbed sedimentary rocks. Of these, Lake Michigan is six hun- 
dred feet deep, with a surface level of five hundred and seventy-eight 
feet above tides; Lake Huron is five huudred feet deep, with a surface 
