ZOOLOGY. 173 
Ridgway writes that ‘‘ the Buteo is really B. Harlani and in a 
plumage not'seen before.” A description of this bird will be found 
in his monograph of the North American Raptores soon to be pub- 
lished. Of the Cormorant, he says that it “is not Graculus 
Floridanus but G. Mexicanus ! — the first specimen obtained north 
of the Rio Grande!” This bird was taken four miles south of 
Lawrence, April 2d, 1872. My mistake in the determination of 
the species arose from the lack of other specimens with which to 
make comparison, and from the fact that the measurements of this 
single specimen exceeded those given in Baird’s General Report, 
the stretch of wings, for instance, being full six inches icp — 
Frank H. Snow, Lawrence, Kansas, July 5th, 1872. 
NOTE on THE Dares or some oF Proressor COPE’S RECENT 
Parers.—The “ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Soci- 
ety,” vol. xii, No. 89, just issued (February 6, 1873), contain 
several communications by Professor Cope on Vertebrate Fossils 
from Wyoming. There are several errors in the dates of these 
papers, bearing in the same direction as those which I have al- 
ready pointed out, but fortunately many of these can readily be 
corrected. In the table of contents of this number, under the 
Stated meeting, August 15, 1872, eight papers by Professor 
Cope are enumerated; and it might be inferred that they were 
read on that day. In fact, however, there was no meeting of the 
Society on the 15th, the regular August meeting having been 
held Friday, August 16th, at which three only of these papers 
were read by title, or entered on the records. At the next regular 
meeting, September 20, 1872, five papers by Professor Cope were 
announced, or read by title. But as now published in the “ Pro- 
ceedings,” four of these purport to have been read September 
19, 1872, when no meeting was held on that date. The actual 
publication of these papers, by distribution, is of course a distinct 
matter, and the evidence is conclusive that none of them were so 
published before October 29, 1872, and some of them not until 
long after.—O. C. 
Tue Sounp Propucep sy THe Deatn’s Heap Mora.—Mr. H. 
N. Mosely has been investigating the cause of the peculiar cry 
produced by the Death’s Head Moth, Acherdntia atropos, and 
records the result in “ Nature.” A number of treatises have been 
written on the subjett, from the time of Réaumur in 1734, the vari- 
ous writers attributing it to friction between the abdomen and 
