1877.] Zoölogy. 
square meal were among the dim recollections of his past. On the con- 
trary those caught in the autumn are fat, sleek, jolly-looking fellows, like 
the rest of the inhabitants of this valley 
This animal is called by the people here “ marmot,” and “ mountain 
beaver,” from his slight resemblance to the beaver; but he is more gen- 
erally known as mountain boomer, from his habit, as it is said, of 
making a kind of booming noise. And this is all the information I have 
in regard to his ery or voice. 
I am told that his flesh is excellent food, and that the Indians eat him 
freely, but it has never been my fortune to come into possession of a 
sample on which I cared to experiment in that direction. 
He is seldom seen abroad, being very shy, and is trapped by setting a 
small steel-trap in the mouth of his hole. But he is exceedingly wary 
about “ putting his foot in it,” and, having several entrances to his sub- 
terranean dwelling, prefers to go and come by another door, and thus 
cheat the greedy trapper of his intended victim. He is srmedited with 
being a fightist when captured and goes for his abc savagely, but 
When caught in a trap, even by a foot only, is usually found dead when 
the trap is visited. He appears to have no object in life except to dig 
holes, and eat fern roots. He does no harm, or good either, to the settler 
or anything else, for that matter. He is neither useful nor ornamental, 
and the sole purpose of his creation appears to be to furnish a rare and 
queer animal for curious ee to place in their collections. — F. S. 
Marteson, M. D., Coquille, Coos Co., Oreg., November 29, 1876. 
Se OF THE Eee eee of our readers have 
probably never met with the accompanying figures restoring the gigantic 
(Fic. $1.) RESTORATION OF THE SIVATHERIU 
ruminant of the Himalayas, which we copy from the Danish Tidsskrift. 
is was a Tertiary, probably Miocene, “elephantine stag, having four 
horns and probably a long proboscis, being in some points between the 
