308 General Notes. [May, 
_ The woodpecker family has attracted our attention all winter by its 
many representatives, as follows : — 
Logcock (Hylotomus pileatus), downy woodpecker (Picus pubescens) 
yellow-bellied woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius), red-bellied woodpecker 
(Centurus Carolinus), golden-winged woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus). 
. Among the birds of prey we have observed the barn owl (Strix 
flammea var. pratincola), barred owl (Syrnium nebulosum), and screech- 
owl (Scops asio), and the red-shoudered buzzard (Buteo lineatus). The 
latter feeds in confinement upon dead animals furnished it, but we found 
by experiment upon a specimen we had procured that it did not do well 
upon such food, for it died in a week from the time of its capture. 
Here we find the turkey-buzzard (Cathartes aura) very plentiful. 
Mourning doves (Zenaidura Carolinensis), wild turkeys (Meleagris 
gallopavo), quails ( Ortyx Virginianus), pigeons (Hetopistes migratorius), 
and mallard ducks (Anas boschas) are our winter game birds. The first 
of February finds the farmer in this region sowing oats and planting 
early garden seeds. At this time, we may say, our winter is over, aud 
our summer birds will soon be with us again. — H. S. Rexnops, Jud- 
sonia, White Co., Arkansas. 
Tue Rep-Heapep WOODPECKER CARNIVOROUS. — A friend who 
resides in Humboldt County, this State, gives me the following particu- 
lars of an unusual occurrence: During the summer of 1876 he raised a 
large number of black Cayuga ducks. It was noticed that while the 
birds were still very young, many of them disappeared, one after the 
other, and the bodies of several were found with the brains picked out. 
On watching carefully to ascertain the cause, a red-headed woodpecker 
(Melaneopes erythrocephalus) was caught in the act. He killed the ten- 
der duckling with a single blow on the head, and then pecked out and ate 
the brains. Though my friend was an enthusiast in protecting the birds 
and squirrels that came about his premises, this provocation was too 
much; the shot gun was brought into use, and his ducks were saved 
from further molestation by a process by which the woodpeckers were 
“thinned out some.” — CHARLES ALDRICH, Webster City, Iowa. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. — The course of lectures on anthropology, 
commenced in November last at the Anthropological Institute of Paris, 
has succeeded beyond the expectation of its founders. In the institute 
are united three organizations of separate origin: the Society of An- 
thropology; the Laboratory of Anthropology, founded by M. Broca in 
1867, and which has since been attached to L'École des Hautes 
udes; and the School of Anthropology, founded by private subserip- 
tion, and sustained by an annual appropriation of twelve thousand francs. 
n the recommendation of the faculty of medicine, the’ minister of 
public instruction has placed at the disposal of the Institute the upper 
