ESSE ae ST R On et ee 
Betis sal at 
1878.] Zoölogy. —. 3099 
IDENTITY OF DIEMYCTYLUS MINIATUS WITH DIEMYCTYLUS VIRI- 
DESCENS.— Last summer I brought home from Sullivan county, 
Penna., a large number of specimens of Diemyctylus miniatus Raf., 
popularly called “little red lizard” or “ red eft,” and after keep- 
ing them in a dark box filled with moss, saturated with water, all 
the specimens have changed their color from bright vermilion to 
the olive shade characteristic ot D. viridescens, and are in all 
particulars identical with the last named species. Although the 
specimens were kept in a moist medium, they were at no time im- 
mersed, and to make the test crucial I dropped three of them in- 
to a tub inclined at an angle with the floor and partially filled. 
Upon their immersion they immediately swam or wriggled vigor- 
ously for land, but after leaving the water and stopping a few 
seconds they turned around and walked back into the water and 
remained there, only coming up at intervals for air. One remained 
thus fifteen minutes before rising to the surface. Some hours 
after, upon watching them again, it was twentv minutes before one 
of them returned to the surface, and as the others seemed disposed 
to remain under a much longer time I was obliged to leave them. 
These specimens have been kept in the house all winter and are 
almost as lively as those I watched at the bottom of the lake in 
the summer. This morning I agitated the water with the tips of 
my fingers, and, upon attracting their attention, saw two of them 
gulp down two pieces of raw meat. Nothing could more satisfac- 
torily demonstrate their entire satisfaction with the element in 
which they had been newly placed. The conclusion then is that 
instead of two well marked species, D. viridescens and D. miniatus, 
or of a species and a variety, we have but a single species 
Diemyctylus miniatus. 
Nat. Hist., Prof. Verrill’s remarks, respecting D. miniatus, “ I can- 
not agree with Prof. Cope in regarding this as a form of D. viri- 
descens.’—Howard A. Kelly. | 
AN EARLY Bird INDEED —On March 21st I was shown a chip- 
ping sparrow’s nest (Spizella socialis) in the midst of a strawberry 
bed on the farm of Mr. John P. Sanborn, near the city of Port 
Huron, Michigan, in which were three newly-hatched little ones 
and an egg. Such an occurrence, even in the middle of April, is 
unprecedented in this latitude. Robins appeared February 11th, 
bluebirds February 18th, blackbirds, song sparrows and golden- 
winged wood-peckers observed February 22d, bob-o-links March 
2d, Darts March 3d.—G. A. Stockwell, M.D.,Port Huron, Mich. 
