1 88 2.] Zoology. 403 



the attack of a single pair of sparrows, but often, this pair, unsuc- 

 cessful in their house-breaking attempt, go off and solicit the aid 

 of their fellows, and return with a dozen or twenty of their kind, 

 lay siege to the place, and by united effort lake it, after the rightful 

 occupants have made a desperate defence against enormous odds. 



It may be only a coincidence — it is a fact, however, that as the 

 sparrows have increased in numbers, the purple martins, Prognt 

 purpurea, have decreased in this locality. 



The sparrows are essentially gramnivorous and frugivorous, and 

 are not insectivorous in the legitimate use of the term. They are 

 very destructive to garden and flower seeds, the small grains, and 

 no species of fruit is free from their depredations. They are more 

 dirty around the house than any of our native, social birds, drop- 

 ping en masse their excrements about the door. I presume they 

 have their good qualities. I cannot agree with Mr. Minot when 

 he says of the purple grackles that he " would not hesitate to 

 sign the death warrant of the whole race." but I would not hesi- 

 tate to sign a warrant to banish the house sparrow from the 

 United States to the place from which they came, and furnish a 

 liberal supply of good food and clean water for the voyage. — 

 Elisha Slade, Somerset, Mass. 



The Opossum at Elmira, N. Y. — Some five years since Mr. 

 H. C. Hill, of Norristown, Pa., where opossums are plenty, sent a 

 female with eleven young, to Dr. Wilder at Ithaca. 



Not altogether liking the Doctor's methods, and perhaps 

 having doubts as to his intentions, they all made their escape and 

 disappeared. 



This may perhaps account for the one captured near Elmira, 

 mentioned in the Naturalist.— Franklin C. Hill. 



A Large Octopus on the Florida Coast.— I have in my 

 possession an Octopus, caught in the Halifax river one mile inland 

 from the sea, which weighed when caught two and a half pounds, 

 measured from tip to tip of extended arms diagonally across the 

 head twenty eight inches, longest arc 

 hundred and ninety-eight su< " 

 eighty-seven suckers, other a._„ 

 and fifteen inches in length ; one arm was broken in its capture. 

 —Mrs. A, Hasty, X w Swy/ 'ia, Florida. 



Japanese Aquatic Animals Living on Land.— Among the 

 conditions favorable to the transition from aquatic to terrestrial 

 life, says Professor C. O. Whitman in his " Zoology in the Uni- 

 versity of Tokio," is a saturated atmosphere. This condition is 

 found in Japan, and it is here that we find some very interesting 

 cases of true aquatic animals living on land. Every one knows 

 that the medicinal leech is a fresh-water animal. This leech has 

 the habit of crawling partly or wholly out of water, when the air 

 1S so saturate at it can do so without exposing 



