ae i 
1877.] Scientific News. 505 
He left no children and for the greater portion of his life was in very 
moderate circumstances. — W. H. DALL. 
— Col. Ezekiel Jewett of Utica, New York, died at Santa Barbara, 
California, on the eighteenth of May, of pneumonia, at the age of nearly 
ninety years. A field naturalist rather than an author, as his martial 
career necessitated, Colonel Jewett was best known to those who have 
enjoyed his society in camp or on a collecting tour. A man of leonine 
bearing, tall and soldierly aspect, of brilliant conversational powers and 
frank and generous disposition ; he combined with these a great amount 
of practical knowledge in some branches of science. Few were more 
conversant, at one time, with the fossils of New York, and he was thor- 
oughly familiar with the marine mollusca of North America up toa 
pretty recent date. He was for many years curator of the New York 
State Cabinet of Natural History, and held other offices of trust. In 
literature he will be chiefly recalled by the references to collections of 
his making on which numerous papers by naturalists have been based. _ 
Personally he was a man whom to know was to honor and love, and he 
formed one of the last links between the laborers for science of his own 
and the present generation, a period covering more than half a century. 
oo W H Dats 
—Ina circular issued from the Surgeon-General’s office Dr. Elliott 
Coues, U. S. A., asks the medical officers of the army, and others inter- 
ested, to cobperate with him in the preparation of a work to be entitled 
History of North American Mammals, to be published by the govern- 
ment. Dr. Coues desires information regarding the geographical distri- 
bution of our mammals; to this end it is desirable that lists should be 
prepared of the various species found in any given locality, with notes 
on their relative abundance or scarcity, times of appearance and disa 
pearance, the nature of their customary resorts, etc. The habits of many 
of the smaller, insignificant, or obscure species are almost entirely un- 
known. Full and accurate information respecting the habits of the nu- 
species of hares, squirrels, shrews, moles, mice, rats, bats, wea- 
sels, gophers, ete., is particularly desired. The bats offer a peculiarly 
inviting and little-explored field of research. Among points to which 
attention may be directed, in any case, are the following : — 
Date and duration of the rut. Period of gestation. Usual time of 
reproduction. Number of young produced. Duration of lactation. Care 
of the young, by one or both parents. State of monogamy or polygamy. 
Times of disappearance and reappearance of such animals as are mi- 
ratory, and of such as hibernate. Completeness or interruption of 
torpidity. Times of changing pelage, of acquiring, shedding, and re- 
newing horns. Habits connected with these processes. Habits peculiar 
_ to the breeding and rutting seasons. Construction of nests, burrows, or 
other artificial retreats. Natural resorts at different seasons. Nature 
of food at various seasons ; mode of procuring it; laying up of supplies ; 
