686 . General Notes. [ November, 
of Mr. Gile’s Australian Plants. Three excellent abstracts of German 
memoirs are given. 
Botanische Zeitung, No. 32. Dr. Harz, On the Origin and Properties 
of Spergulin (a new fluorescent from the seed-coats of Spergula vul- 
garis). Continued from the last number. Reports of Societies. No. 33. 
B. Ascheron, Phytographic Notes. Christoph Gobi, On Some Phæos- 
poreæ of the Baltic. No. 34. H. G. Holle, On the Point of Growth in 
the Roots of Dicotyledons. No. 85. A. Morgen, On the Process of As- 
similation in germinating Cress (Lepidium sativum.) Continued in 
Nos. 36 and 37. In No. 37 there is a paper by Dr. O. Drude, On the 
Structure and Systematic Position of the Genus Carludovica. The genus 
is assigned a place between Pandanacee and Palmee. No. 88. Dr. O. 
Drude, Selected Examples to explain the Formation of the Fruit in 
Palms. Rostafinske, of Cracow, A Reply to Certain Criticisms by 
Reinke. 
ZOOLOGY.! 
Destruction or Birps py TeLteararn Wires. — Referring to 
Dr. Coues’s article on this subject, in the NATURALIST and elsewhere, 
I wish to add my testimony to the destruction of much larger birds than 
any mentioned by this writer. Many prairie chickens ( Cupiaonia 
cupido) are annually destroyed in this way. In December, 1868, near 
Cambridge, Story County, Iowa, I saw many of these birds lying dead 
on the snow, beneath the line of the telegraph, and was informed by the 
stage driver that they killed themselves by striking the wire in their 
rapid flight. Some of the birds had their heads cleanly cut off, and 
most of them were torn and lacerated to a greater or less extent. One 
or two of the wounded were still alive and fluttering. The spot seemed 
to be a favorite one for the flight of the chickens. A high belt of tim- 
ber skirted the river, and beyond this lay the mile-wide expanse of 
“Skunk Bottom,” bounded by high bluffs on the east. For certain reasons 
— possibly owing to some peculiarity of the winds at this point, or to 
the protection afforded by the belt of timber — the birds were accus- 
tomed to speed like arrows down across this bottom, and slight contact 
with the single wire that stretched across would either maim or kill them 
outright. Since that time I have heard of several instances in which 
these birds have been killed in the same manner. The destruction of 
these birds is so general along some of the railroad lines in the West that 
section men make a regular business of gathering them up as an addi- 
tion to their own stock of provisions. The telegraph wires may there- 
fore be set down as one of the means — and not an insignificant one — 
whereby the extermination of the prairie hens is proceeding with a de- 
gree of rapidity which would be astonishing had we any means of mak- 
+ The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Cougs, yp, S. A, 
