120 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
the female between them, by means of the ridge of closely set, 
brush-like scales with which the males alone are provided, so that | 
she is almost entirely concealed. In this state the three run to- 
gether with great swiftness upon the sand, and in this act the 
spawn issues from the female, which is simultaneously fertilized. 
An immense business is carried on in the capture of the capelin 
as bait for the cod; the French fishermen alone obtaining from 
the fishing ground off Newfoundland, from sixty thousand. to sev- 
enty thousand hogsheads annually for this purpose. 
ORNITHOLOGICAL Nores.—In J. A. Allen’s ‘ Notes on Some of 
the Rarer Birds of Massachusetts,” in the Narurauist for Jan- 
uary, 1870, he says of the Glossy Ibis (Tbis Ordii), “ It, was also 
taken, as I learn from Mr. Vickery, in New Hampshire, in October, 
1858, by Dr. Palmer.” I have the specimen in my collection now, 
an old bird, in full plumage, taken near Lake Winnipiscogee, in the 
town of Alton, N. H. -I have also the Canada Jay (Perisoreus 
Canadensis), and Black-backed, Three-toed Woodpecker ( Picioides 
arcticus), both taken in Strafford, N. H. The jay I shot in winter, 
and the woodpecker was taken late in the fall. I believe the 
Canada Jay is not mentioned by Mr. Allen as occurring in Massa- 
chusetts. It is not improbable that it may be an occasional winter 
visitant. The Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola Canadensis) has appeared 
in Ipswich during the winters of 1867-68, and 1868-69. I secured 
one in red plumage, but they were mostly young birds. —.CHARLES 
PALMER, Ipswich. 
Mimicry in Insects. — At a recent meeting of the Scientific 
Committee of the Horticultural Society, a remarkable paper was 
read by Mr. Andrew Murray, on the subject of Mimetism, espec- 
ially as exhibited in the instances of the South American butter- 
flies, which have already been discussed in our columns. Mr. 
Murray adduced a number of arguments which he considered told 
against the theory that the mimicry had been produced by Natural 
Selection, and attributed it to hybridization. — Nature. 
PaRasire ON tHe Wasp.—Mr. F. Smith exhibited to the Ento- 
mological Society of London, Phora florea, a dipterous parasite in 
the nest of the wasp. We have figured and noticed in the Nat- 
URALIST, vol. 2, p. 196, a similar parasite in the cells of the honey 
bee living in Europe. Similar flies should be looked for in thi 
country by our enterprising bee keepers. , 
