262 Scientific News. [ April, 
— Recent arrivals at the Philadelphia Zodlogical Gardens, 
Feb. 10, 1878: 2 Chinese or knobbed geese (Anser cygnoides), 
resented; 2 common marmosets (/apale jacchus), 1 black-eared 
marmoset (Hapale pencillata), presented; 2 barn owls (Strix 
ammea, Var. americana) presented; 3 opossums (Didelphys vir- 
giniana), presented; 1 red-shouldered buzzard (Buteo lineatus), 
presented; 1 eland (Oveas canna) 9, purchased; 1 siren (Siren 
lacertina), presented; 1 red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), pre- 
sented; 1 bald eagle (Hatiaétus leucocephalus) presented; 2 rough- 
legged buzzards (Archibuteo lagopus), purchased; 3 white rabbits 
(Lepus cuniculus), presented; 4 hybrid fowls, presented; 8 dingos 
(Canis dingo), born in the Garden.—Arthur E. Brown, Gard. Supt. 
— The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 
Vol. I, 1877, contains Selections from the Records of the Home 
Secretary, Prof. J. E. Hilgard, under whose direction this volume 
has been published. Unfortunately Congress has not yet author- 
ized the publication of the papers and memoirs presented by the 
members at the semi-annual meetings of the Academy. 
The Biographical Memoirs of the deceased members of the 
National Academy of Sciences has been published by the Home 
Secretary, and forms a volume of 343 pages. It contains obit- 
uary notices of fifteen deceased members. 
— We have received, from Mr. Townend Glover, Manuscript 
Notes from my Journal, or Entomological Index to name, etc., 
in Agricultural Reports, with List of Vegetable and Animal Sub- 
stances injured or destroyed by Insects, etc., Washington, 1877. 
This is a quarto work of 103 pages in the author’s clear and 
legible handwriting transferred to and printed on stone. It forms 
a useful supplement to the laborious works of the author on th 
Diptera and Hemiptera, printed for private distribution. 
— A ‘new curriculum of education having been adopted by the 
board of control of public schools of Philadelphia, which includes 
a space in each of the divisions throughout the course, to be de- 
voted to object study, the question of the introduction of primary 
instruction in the natural sciences is being agitated. At the last 
teachers’ institute of the city, held in the Girls’ Normal School, a 
lecture was delivered by Prof. Cope, in advocacy of this measure. 
In this lecture Prof. Cope explained that teaching in this depart 
ment should never be without natural objects, models or charts. 
For general or comparative study, where the student should use 
a considerable number of objects, it was pointed out that pe- 
trology, mineralogy, botany, and entomology present the greatest 
facilities, since specimens can be obtained in these departments 
with the greatest ease. In the majority of departments © 
geology and biology it. was maintained by the lecturer, that charts 
giving simple analyses of structure should be used, and it was 
recommended that these be of two kinds. Those of the first kind — ; 
