NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 121 
Riveneck Duck.— Mr. G. A. Boardman of Calais, Me., writes 
that he found several flocks of the Ringneck Duck, Fulix collaris, 
breeding on the river, near Calais, the past season, and that he 
secured the old and ‘ chicks.” He states that he knows of no 
other instance of this duck breeding in New England. 
Mocxıxe Bieb m= Maine.—I found a mocking bird, Mimus 
polyglottus, in the woods up the river this past season. This is 
the first time the bird has been found in Maine, to my knowledge, 
and I think it could not have been an escaped cage bird.—G. A. 
BoarpMan, Calais, Maine. 
Rep SQUIRRELS not Rep. — I received in November last a very 
pretty black specimen of the Sciurus Hudsonius, and also a pure 
white specimen of the same species. —G. A. BOARDMAN, Calais, 
GEOLOGY. 
Devonian Rocks IN THE Amazonran VALLEY. — At the foot of 
the celebrated Serra do Ereré, rechristened Monte do Agassiz by 
Dr. Silva Continho, in the Province of Grao Para, Brazil, is an 
extensive plain on the northern side, composed of coarse shaly 
sandstones of a reddish color, red, white, and black shales, and very 
hard cherty beds, all lying quite horizontally, but broken through 
by a perfect network of heavy trap dykes, which appear on the 
surface of the plain like ruined walls. The sandstone beds con- 
tain fossils of which I secured a large collection. They comprise 
one or more species of Dalmanites of which I have fragments 
kindly determined for me by Professor James Hall, Chonetes?, Spir- 
ifer, Leptocelia, Orthisina, Orthis?, Lingula, Discina, Tentacu- 
litz, ete. In a relatorio published in the “ Diario do Grao-Paré” 
of Pará, January 5th, 1871, I referred this series of beds to the 
Devonian. A small collection of the above fossils was referred to 
Professor Hall, who writes me that “ the forms and associations are 
of Devonian character, and the impression produced from the tout 
ensemble is that they are of the age of the Upper Helderberg 
group.” 
We have now the Devonian age of the Ereré beds, I think, defi- 
nitely settled, and it is interesting that these are the only Brazil- 
ian rocks that we can satisfactorily refer to that age. 
