a2 ee unted only twelve. Van Beneden | 

52 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 










In Cuba I started from St. Jago, with two horses, to go to Havana. 
Before I had travelled half the journey one of the horses became infested — 
with ticks, the other had none or few. Every day while resting at noon 
wira knife I scraped off all - ticks I could see or feel. Notwithstand [ 
horses fed. Around the larger ticks were generally found one or mo 
ssi ones, sometimes many of the latter. I have seen something of eil 
kind in the coast prairies of Texas. Are they viviparous? I never ob- . 
above mentioned ticks of Cuba were those of the savanna rather than of 
the timbered parts. — CHARLES WRIGHT. 
S FOR POLLEN FoR Honky Bkks.— My bees carry into 
ing her eggs, iud strong swarms are ready to come out on the bleak 
Shores of Lake Erie by the middle of May, — an occurrence often n happen- 
ing with me since I began to thus feed them, in 1860, but not happening 
when the meal is withheld. Unbolted rye flour, and also ground linseed 
or oil-cake may be substituted, but the best rye meal is preferred by the 
bees, and is perhaps the cheapest. A handful of clean straw should be 
placed in an open box, standing in the middle of the apiary, and the meal 
Should be scattered over the Straw; otherwise many of the bees will get 
fatally swamped in the meal.—J. P. KIRTLAND. East Roe 
j kport, O. 
epredator enter the small hive, drag out the queen, and fly away with 
her to the woods. — JARED P. Kim’ 
— VARIATI ION IN THE pense OF WHaLES.— M. Van Bambeke has. 
rally unli e 
greater individual differences than usual in other vertebrate animals, and 
a great number of individuals are necessary for the establishment of spe- 
. There are, however, some naturalists for whom any modification, 
mweer small it may be, suffices for the creation of new species. The 
Tursio ibed by M. Van Bambeke, has thirteen ribs on one side, and 
fourteen on the other, like the skeleton of the he Mysticetus, at Brussels. In 
another Tursio, of Heligoland, V. Van Beneden has found thirteen, and in 

