634 ZOOLOGY. 
and numbered about 5000 individual polypes. With P. Blaket 
were received specimens of Pennatula tenua Gabb, described in 
oc. Cal. Acad., vol. ii.— R. E. C. STEARNS, San Francisco. 
Tue KIıNGFISHER.— In a recent number of the Naturatist is a 
note by Dr. Abbott contradicting Darwin’s statements as to the 
manner in which the kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) takes its food. 
Permit me to add my testimony in favor of Darwin. Having ob- 
served the habits of birds for some years I can say that the king- 
fisher divides its food by means of its bill, before swallowing. 
The smaller fish being soft are easily crushed and divided while 
being swallowed. The larger fish are frequently partially swal- 
lowed and so carried to a convenient perch and there disgorged, 
and then a few strokes of the bill divide it ready for digestion. 
A dissection of a kingfisher will show the above to be the case.— 
E. E. Breep, Duluth, Minn. 
Tue “Hornep Toap.”—It may be of some interest to the 
readers of the Naturatist to know that the common horned toad 
(Phrynosoma cornuta) produces a large number of young at a 
single birth. Last summer Mr. George Eddy of this city brought 
me a toad which had given birth to twenty-five little ones, and two . 
weeks ago (July 14) a boy called after me and showed me a toad 
which only two hours before had given birth to twenty-seven. 
The young were exceedingly active and could run as rapidly as 
the old one.—Joun WHERRELL, Leavenworth, Kansas. 
Tue BLACK Syowsmp BREEDS on THE Grariock Rance. — I 
have for some time suspected that the black snowbird (Junco 
hyemalis) breeds on the mountains of this region; but I have 
never found the nest of this bird here till to-day. To-day I found 
the nest, with two eggs, on one of the hills belonging to the Gray- 
lock range. It was on the ground just under the edge of a little . 
bank and was made of dried grasses and lined with black hair. 
Jacob Horton, of the senior class in this college, found the nest 
and eggs of this bird on Graylock a few days ago. — SANBORN 
Tenner, Williams College, Aug. 6, 1873. _ 
ADDITION To THE Avi-rauna or Amertca.—One of the birds 
obtained by our party in the Aleutian Islands during last season, 
with an incomplete set of eggs, was forwarded by Prof. Baird (to 
whom the specimens were submitted) to Mr. Harting of London; 
