674 General Notes. [September, 
four feet upon her enemy; the last stroke always does the work. 
I got sight of two animals last August on Pauns-a-gunt Plateau ; 
they were blue in color, with horns like a goat, five others were 
seen on the same plateau; I do not know what they are nor do I 
know anything about their habits. On the same plateau are pan- 
thers and wild cats, with porcupines and badgers. Everywhere can 
be found that hen-roost robber the coyote; it will eat fowls, rabbits, 
crows, crickets, grasshoppers and almost anything else of animal 
kind, including yellow jackets. Nests of small animats, white 
bellied or ground mice, gophers, kangaroo rats, mountain rats 
with their large pop eyes and flat tail, are abundant.—A. L. Siler, 
Ranch P. O., Utah. 
ICHTHYDIUM OCELLATUM.—I have found this singular Infusor- 
ian, first described by E. Metschnikoff, from German waters, in 
great abundance in a land-locked salt pool near Mobjack bay, 
New Point Comfort, Va. It was associated with vast numbers 0 
another member of the same family, viz: Coleps hirtus Ehbg. 
There were also great numbers of a small Ameeba present, 
together with a species of Difflugia, which appears to be Arcella 
vulgaris, with which a large holotrichous Infusorian, which I did 
not determine, was often literally stuffed. The supposed eyes of 
Ichthydium ocellatum did not appear as distinct to me as they are 
figured by Metschnikoff. The chitinous annulate cesophagus and 
the singular backward prolongation of it, which it is hard to believe ~ 
is a true intestine with a proper wall, was clearly seen. The 
zoological position of these symmetric Infusoria, as they were 
called by Dujardin (Gasterotricha Metsch. and Class, Memato- 
rhyncha of Huxley), still apparently remains to be settled —/7. A. 
Ryder. l 
On THE COURSE OF THE INTESTINE IN THE OYSTER (OSTREA 
VIRGINIANA)—[In investigating the anatomy of the American 
oyster, under the auspices of the Maryland Fish Commissioñ, at 
St. Jeromes creek, Md., I find an arrangement of the intestine so 
remarkable that I will briefly describe it. The mouth is a wide 
opening between the upper median angles of the palpi; so wide 
indeed, that the animal caq scarcely be said to have an cesopha- 
gus; immediately follows the stomach, which is seen to have very 
pronounced folds internally, with a generally transverse direction, 
but two of these which lie in a somewhat ventral position, are a pair 
of inward projecting lobes which are themselves lobulated. The 
intestine then follows an oblique course, downwards and back- 
wards, when it makes a sharp bend returning beneath the floor of | 
the pericardial space, passing obliquely upwards and forwards, 
somewhat to the right and dorsad of the stomach, when it crosses 
exactly over the mouth or very short gullet, passing downwards 
to the left side of the animal, alongside and a little to the lower 
side of the stomach, when it again turns upwards and passes 
