1878. ] Scientific News. i 265 
which are the nurses, and they have an extraordinary brood-sac, 
developed as a pouch from the throat, and extending over a great 
portion of the ventral surface of the animal. In this cavity a num- 
ber of living tadpoles were found, in numbers of individuals, and 
the length of the tadpoles was about 14 mm. How these are first 
developed and nourished is not yet known. Dr. J. W. Spengel 
translates a portion of the Spanish paper in the current number of 
the Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. xxix, part 4. 
— We have received and are much pleased with the first two 
numbers of The Young Scientist, a popular Record of Scientific Ex- 
periments, Inventions and Progress. It is well adapted for boys, 
= the articles being attractive and clearly written. It has our hearty 
sympathy and good wishes. 
— MacMillan & Co., have in preparation the first part of a 
“ Course of Instruction in Zodtomy,” by Prof. Huxley, assisted by 
4 r. T. J. Parker. They are about to publish “ A monograph on 
the development of Elasmobranch Fishes,” by Mr. F. M. Balfour. 
— During his recent five months’ explorations in Costa Rica, 
Mr. A. Boucard collected about a thousand specimens represent- ` 
ing 250 species of birds,some of great variety and two new to 
science (Zonotrichia boucardi and Sapphironia boucardi of Mulsant). 
— We copy from Sir J. D. Hooker’s address before the Royal 
Society, the following notice of the U. S. Geological Survey of the 
Territories, of which Professor Hayden has the charge : 
f the many surveys of the United States Territories under- 
taken, some by the central government, others by State govern- 
ments, and still others by private enterprise, more or less aided 
by public funds, none has effected so much for science as that di- 
rected by Dr. Hayden. Its publications, distributed with great 
liberality; are in every scientific library, and its director is hon- 
ored no less for the energy and zeal with which he has labored 
= as a topographer and geologist, than for the enlightened spirit 
_ in which he has sought to render the resources of the survey 
_ available for the advancement of all branches of natural knowl- 
edge by every means in his power, and with admirable impartiality. 
Having obtained an extended leave of absence from my official 
duties at the Royal Gardens, at the close of our last session, I 
accepted an invitation from Dr. Hayden to join his survey, and, 
in company with our foreign member, Professor Asa Gray, to 
visit, under his conduct, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and 
Utah, with the object of contributing to the records of the survey 
a report on the botany of those States. 
I have thus had some opportunity of learning for myself the 
extent and value of the operations of the survey, which are so in- 
teresting that [ venture to think a brief sketch of its rise and | 
Progress and a few of its results may be acceptable to you. 
