402 General Notes. - [May, 



and Oregon, but not between these stations so far as now known." 

 s that remarkable species too narrow a limit 



by many thousands ot ujuavt aides. In 1843 appeared Vol. v of 

 Part 1 (Zoology of New York), by James E. DeKay, in which, p. 

 197 (Plate xiv, Fig. 214), is given a description of this shell with 

 the name Alasmodon arcuata ; De Kay quotes it as " one of the 

 largest and most commonest of our Unios," and states his speci- 

 mens were from Rockland countv, Champlain, Oneida and many 

 other localities. Dr. Lewis (Bull. Buf. Soc. Nat. Sci., August, 

 1874, page 141) lists it among the shells of New York, as "re- 

 ported orally, localities not known." I have five examples from 

 a brook at Haydensville, Mass., and over ioofrom a branch of the 

 Connecticut river, near Hartland, Vermont, where it abounds. 

 Beyond Maine the species is reported from various points in New 

 Brunswick, and even from Newfoundland. Of its distribution in 

 the western portions of America the following facts are known : 

 " It is the most abundant of the fresh-water bivalves, and the only 

 one I have been able to find in the Chehalis, the streams empty- 

 ing into Puget sound, and most branches of the Columbia" 

 (Cooper, Pacific R. R. Reports, Vol. xn, Pt. 11, page 311). It is 

 also quoted from the Shasta river, Oregon, having been collected 

 in that stream by Dr. Trask, and from the Klamath and Yuba. It 

 is known to the eastward among the Rocky mountains, specimens 

 having been taken from the Missouri river above the Falls ; also 

 from the Spokan river, below Lake Cceur d'Alene (Carpenter, 

 Mollusks of west coast of North America, page 116). Concern- 

 ing the conclusions drawn from this species, I am not prepared at 

 this time to say anything. But to fix as a fact the important de- 

 duction that this form and the others mentioned in connection 

 therewith are " remnants " of another fauna which has suffered 

 such remarkable changes as incidental to glaciation is a matter 

 which will yet require a vast amount of labor and research. The 



pend on it, should be determined. It is believed that in this note 

 all the known points of its occurrence in America have been, for 

 the first time, brought together. — R. Ellsworth Call. 



The European House Sparrow. — Passer domesticus has its 

 place in nature, possibly monarchical Europe, and monarchical in- 

 dividuals in other places can overestimate their worth, but in 

 America they are out of place, and their introduction was a 

 grievous mistake. Its disposition is very far from being republi- 

 can, and its treatment of some of our native birds, which are of 

 much more value than themselves, is tyrannical and despotic. 

 Quarrelsome with and pugnacious towards the swallows, martins, 

 wrens and bluebirds they take by force the houses put up 

 especially for their use. Thanks for the love of liberty, right and 

 justice, the swallow, martin, wren or bluebird having possession 

 of the house can, and usually does succeed in keeping it against 



