600 General Notes. [J u b', 



the middle and tapering more rapidly towards each end. It is cf 

 a dark horn brown. Length 3; mm , breadth $ T A mm . — A. S. Pack- 

 ard, Jr. 



Descent of Dytiscus during a shower.— In the October No. 

 of Vol. 3, American Entomologist, mention is made of a "veritable 

 shower " of water-beetles, supposed to be a species of Dytiscus, as 

 having occurred in a certain locality in Kentucky during the 

 summer of 1880. I am reminded of this phenomenon by the 

 singular manner in which some of my friends came into posses- 

 sion of two remarkably fine specimens of Dytiscus fasciventris 

 Say. Just after one of our light September showers, a goblet, 

 that had been left on the outer ledge of a window, was found 

 pretty full of the fresh rain-water in which were swimming about, 

 in apparent content, the two water-beetles referred to. 



How they came there was the question— the opinion prevail- 

 ing that they " rained down." They could not have bred within 

 a considerable distance from the house where they alighted, and 

 the fact that they dropped into the glass of water was also 

 most singular. They made no attempt to escape from the 

 glass and lived there until the water was frozen late in November. 

 No food was given them except that the water was occasionally 

 replenished. Is it known to be a habit of this insect to rise into 

 the air at certain times on the approach of, or during the progress 

 of a shower? — Mary E. Murtfeldt, Kirkwood, Mo. 

 ANTHROPOLOG-Y. 1 



A well merited Honor. — It will be a source of gratification 

 to the many friends of Professor Charles Rau, the Nestor ot 

 American archaeologists, to learn that the University of Fnburg 

 has conferred upon him the honorary title of Doctor of Philos- 



A Correction.— In looking over the contents of the last num- 

 ber of the American Antiquarian, we were astonished to find that 

 Dr. Yarrow, who has come to be our standard authority on dead 

 Indians, should turn aside to treat of the superstitions of Iwi In- 

 dians. We have the doctor's permission to state that his paper 

 in the Antiquarian was upon the superstitions of the Sioux 



The Washington Saturday Lectures —By the joint action 

 of the Anthropological and the Biological Society of Washing 

 ton, in February last, a course of eight free lectures at the 1 

 tional Museum was organized. Four of them were upon anthro- 

 pology and its kindred topics, with the following titles: Marc 

 18— What is Anthropology ? by Professor Otis T. Mason ; ^F 

 1— Outlines of Sociology, by Major J. W. Powell; April 15 

 Paul Broca and the French School of Anthropology, by » > 

 ' Edited by Professor Otis T. Mason, 1305 Q. street, N. W., Washington, D. 



