664 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
been kept under a bell-glass, open at the top. The sun has had but limi- 
ted access to my study in which they are. Can this explain their non- 
gf Teg EO arcana seipetapiie College, Phila., Oct. 17 
ere by no means sure that the eggs of the Cicada hatch in about 
wo at but from the r of observers, it seemed to us more 
probable at the time of writing the notes in the August number of the 
or fifty days after, as stated by one author. In avery interesting article in 
the ‘‘American Entomologist” for December, page 66, Mr. Riley states that 
the at hatch in about six weeks after being deposited. — Eps. ] 
REASON OR INsTINcT.—Some years since when a great freshet had 
cde the country at the summit of the Illinois and Michigan canal, a 
boatman observed an Opossum sitting on the top of a fence, partof which 
projected a foot above the surrounding waters. He took her off, and 
found in the sack fourteen young ones half-grown. She was so nearly 
f: 
ously whatever was put before her, and soon became quite domesticated. 
he could easily have saved herself by swimming ashore, but evidently 
appreciated that it would be at the loss of her family. — J. S. CAT 
ag THE Crow A BIRD or Prey?—A communication, in the NATURAL- 
T for November, from Mr. Nauman, relates the pouncing down upon & 
oe (a la hawk) and the carrying it off by a crow; and the enquiry is 
made whether this is a common practice with this bird. I suppose it is 
not very common, but in the month of May or June of this year, I saw a 
crow dash down upon a brood of young chickens, about sixty yards from 
my house, and carry one of them off, and in a second attempt a few days 
afterward, the quasi bird of prey failed to secure its prize. A member of 
my family witnessed a third instance, on which occasion the prey was 
carried off. 
The fowls in the early part of the season appeared to look for no harm 
from those birds, but later they came to understand the danger, and uni- 
formly fled to the shelter of the buildings, with cries of alarm upon the 
approach of crows, in the same way as it is their habit to do from hawks. 
—Joun H. BARTHOLF, M. D., Camp Grant, near Richmond, Va 
ALBINO DEER AND CHIPMUNK. — Dr. Morgan, at Grand Rapids, Mich., 
has in his possession the skin and feet of the Common Deer (Cervus Vir- 
— which was of an uniform pure white, with white eyes and black 
00 
sent among the hunters left unmolested, with the intention to await a 
heavy snow, and then run it down and capture it alive. But the dogs did 
not coincide in this arrangement, and one day were found chasing it, and 
as it n an exhausted condition near a traveller, he caught it and 
cut its throat, and skinned it, so that the above trophies were all that ` 
could be obtained. 
At Centerville, Mich., there is in the possession of a gentleman a com- 
