710 General Notes. [ November, 
OVIPAROUS SNAKEs.—In his article “On the question ‘Do 
snakes swallow their young ?’” (Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 
1873) Mr. Goode states that certain species of snakes, with which 
he includes Heterodon platyrhinos and Tropidonotus sipedon, are 
ovo-viviparous. 
I have in my possession two eggs of H. platyrhinos from a set 
of twenty-two ploughed out of the sand at East Hampton, L. L., 
on the roth of September, 1877. 
The fact that these eggs had been buried and left in the sand, 
and that of the two in my possession one did not hatch till the 
fourth day after its discovery (the other being then put in alcohol 
to prevent its hatching) shows conclusively that this species is 
sometimes, at least, oviparous. 
Can it be true of this species: and of T. sipedon, which a com- 
munication from Prof. Cope states to be oviparous, that they are 
oviparous in some cases and ovo-viviparous in others, as is sup- 
posed are some of the Eutznias ?>—/. W. Cragin. 
STRATAGEM OF A Wasp.—One day. when in Southern New 
Jersey, wearied with the heat, I was resting under a large oak, 
when my attention was drawn to what at first seemed a 
strangely variegated insect on the trunk of the tree; closer 
examination showed the apparently single insect to be really two 
insects, one a wasp the other a roach. My approach frightened 
the wasp off, but the roach did not move, at Jeast very far. Wish- 
ing to understand why the wasp had been so near the roach, I 
quietly watched till the wasp returned. It had no sooner alighted, 
than going to the roach it seized it by the base of one of its 
antennz and proceeded to back up the tree, dragging the roach 
after it. I soon perceived that the probable reason the roach did 
not escape when the wasp had been frightened off was, that it 
had been stung. It is well known that wasps frequently sting 
spiders and larva just sufficiently to paralyze them, so that they 
may not decay before the young, for whom they are destined, are 
in condition to feed upon them. But it seems in the instance 
above cited, as if the wasp had only so far injured the roach as 
to render it incapable of escape, but not incapable of walking. 
By which stratagem it was thus saved the labor of bodily carry- 
ing its victim to its nest. Where its nest was, and whether the 
roach was destined to be food for the young to be, I could net 
ascertain, for unwittingly I frightened the wasp off again, and it 
did not return while I remained by the spot—Henry Turner. 
BELEOSTOMA Piscivorous—In the spring of 1878, at Ithaca, 
N. Y., I had confined, in a jar of water with stickle-backs (Gas- 
terosteus) and other fishes, a large specimen of a water-bug 
(Beleostoma), At different times I found dead fishes in the jar, 
~ and surmised, from the appearance of a wound on each of them, 
_ that the water-bug had been the cause of their death. This sup+ — 
