456 General Notes. [July, 
Günther. As with the American collections, no division receives 
greater accessions than the Azacanthin. Not less than six new 
genera of this group are described by Günther, four of which he 
places in the Uphidude. Ten species are added to the genus 
Coryphaenoides. The Scopelide prove to be equally characteristic 
of great depths, fifteen species and three genera being reported 
as: new., Perhaps the most interesting novelties are five new 
species of Alepocephalide, which belong to four genera, of which 
threearenew. The total number of species described by Günther 
is sixty-one, 
To PREVENT GREASE FROM INJURING THE PLUMAGE OF Birps.— 
I have received the following letter which speaks for itselfi—Z/+ 
hott Coues. 
Dr. Coues: 
Dear Sir:—In your Field Ornithology you speak somewhat 
despairingly of preventing the oil from injuring the plumage of 
fat birds, and I write to tell you of an experiment that I have 
tried, and which I believe is a success. A month since I put up 
a goosander whose skin was thick and very oily. Taking off the 
leaves of fat, my next thought was of how to prevent the satu- 
ration of the feathers, and I hit upon this experiment. Being a 
dentist and accustomed to the use of absorbents, I took a piece 
of spunk, of which I enclose a sample, cut it of an oval shape 
and large enough to reach pretty well up on the side of the tow 
body, pinned the edge smoothly to it, and as it is of a uniform 
thickness, it made a good surface for the skin to lie against. 
This specimen has been in my laboratory all the time during 
these weeks, exposed night and day to the ordinary temperature 
of a hotse heated by a furnace, and shows not in the slightest 
degree any appearance of oil, while another specimen with a very 
similar skin is completely saturated beneath. 
I take the liberty to write on this subject as it may lead toa 
satisfactory solution of the problem, how to keep the oil from 
soiling the plumage in fat birds, 
Very truly yours, 
A. H. Stevens, Clinton, Conn. 
CLINTON, CONN., April 12, 1879. 
ANOTHER SIREDON.——M. Velasco has recently published in the 
Memoirs of the Mexican Society of Natural History for 1878, a 
description of a species of Ambdlystoma and its metamorphoses, 
under the name of Sivedon tigrinus, which is found in lake Santa ` 
Isabel, in the valley of Mexico. M. Velasco names the species 
as new, but we cannot perceive that it is different from the yellow- 
spotted varieties of the Amdlystoma mavortium of Baird. The 
metamorphoses of Mexican specimens of this species have been 
observed by Duméril, and Sumichrast has sent specimens of the 
same from the elevated regions of Vera Cruz. M. Velasco gives 
