312 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
nicates with the Vertebrates, it was interesting to recall two prom- 
inent features of the Vermes that are likewise prominent characters 
of the Vertebrates, namely: hairs or setæ secreted by follicles, 
and genitals in pairs, with infundibuliform orifices, suspended free- 
ly in the perivisceral cavity. ; 
A Zoo.ocist ON THE Pacrric Coast.—Dr. S. Kneeland gave 
an account at the same meeting of a trip which he made in 1870, 
by sea, from San Francisco to Panama, and presented a few spec- 
imens which he had collected. He described the climate, the gen- 
eral appearance of the coast, and incidents of the voyage, and 
referred to the habits of some of the sea birds and of the flying- 
fish. Large petrels (Puffinus cinereus) he said, began to appear 
and followed us on the second day out. On alighting in the water, 
which they often do, they put forward their webbed feet, check- - 
ing their headway in this manner, backing water as it were with 
the wings spread, before settling on the surface. They came 
round and near the steamer in considerable numbers, but never 
alighted on it as the booby of the Atlantic does. On account of 
the great length of their wings and the shortness of their legs, 
they cannot rise, like the gulls, directly from the water, but are 
obliged to run along the surface like the smaller petrels, beating 
the water with their feet until sufficiently elevated to use their 
wings 
Flying-fish also began to appear, but neither so numerous nor 
so large as in the Southern Atlantic. The ventrals were expanded 
just like the pectorals in the act of flight, the former being much 
the smaller. They rose out of a perfectly smooth sea, showing 
that they are not mere skippers from the top of one wave to an- 
other; they could be seen to change their course, as well as to 
rise and fall, not unfrequently touching the longer, lower lobe of 
the tail to the surface, and again rising, as if they used the tail 
as a powerful spring. While the ventrals may act chiefly as a 
parachute, it seems as if the pectorals performed, by their almost 
imperceptible but rapid vibrations, the function of true flight. 
Another reason which led him to think they perform a true 
flight is the way in which they reénter the water. After reaching 
the end of their aerial course, they drop into the water with a 
splash instead of making a gradual and gentle descent, like the 
flying-squirrel, flying-dragon, and other vertebrates with mem- 
