1 882.] Zoology. 243 



at least, dried up every summer. Not many individuals could be 

 captured by merely sweeping the net through the water; but 

 when it was used to stir up the soft mud at the bottom, they could 

 be taken in great numbers. In the March number of Vol. XII. 

 of the American Naturalist occurs a note by Professor A. S. 

 Packard, Jr., stating that this species had been captured at Dan- 

 vers, Mass., Jan. 10, 1878, and had been seen even earlier. So 

 far as I am aware, no one has hitherto reported this species as 

 having been observed outside of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

 — 0. P. Hay, Irvingtou, Ind, 



Albinism in a Crustacean. — To-day I found under a log 

 an albino specimen of Porcellio. It was of a uniform yellowish 

 white color, and was among other sow-bugs of the ordinary gray 

 and brown colors. It is the only one I have ever seen. — Henry 

 Wan/ Turner, Ithaca, New York, Dec. 18th, 188 1. 



Longevity of the Turtle, — Enclosed I send you a slip cut 

 from " The Clayton Independent;* published at Clayton, N. Y., 

 Sep. 8th, 1 88 1. The article was copied by some of the local 

 papers in that vicinity, viz: " Watertown Times," and " Watertown 

 Reformer" For the truth of these statements I can vouch so far 

 as the matter concerns myself. A. D. Percy is a brother-in-law 

 of mine and a gentleman to be relied upon. At the second 

 capture the first markings were not very distinct, but sufficiently 

 so to be easily read. Very truly yours, 



C. D. Abbey, 



Principal of the Hi-h School, I t'.i its.ru, Wisconsin. 



" In 1864 C. D. Abbey found a large mud turtle on his father's 

 farmland cut his name and the date on the shell and then put it 

 into the river. In 1874 he found the same turtle near the same 

 place and again cut his name and date in the shell and then released 

 it. Last Friday the same turtle made its appearance, and A. D. 

 Percy cut his name on the back, and placed it in the river, when 

 it started directly for Canada, evidently displeased with such 

 treatment." 



Habits of the Boring Sponge. — N. Nassonon finds, states the 

 Journal of the Royal Microscropical Society, that the Clione lives 

 on the shells of living oysters as well as on empty shells. They 

 give off from the surface very delicate pseudopodia-Iike processes, 

 which pass in all directions into the substance of the shell ; these 

 processes may branch, and even anastomose with one another. 

 The author, by placing in the aquarium fine transparent lamella.' 

 of oyster shells, saw the young Clione pusji its processes into the 

 calcareous lamella ; when they had reached a certain depth they 

 united with one another and forced out hemispherical calcareous 

 particles; these were by contraction carried into the interior of the 

 body, and then cast to the exterior. The ectoderm is reported to 



