1 882.] Zoology. 1009 



Habits of the English Sparrow. — The following interesting 

 note has been received from Dr. A. K. Fisher, of Sing Sing, N. 

 Y. : Knowing your great fondness for Passer domestieits I send 

 you a brief account of one of the various ways in which he im- 

 poses upon his superiors. The following was related to me by a 

 friend, who was an eye-witness. You well know that when robins 

 are feeding their young they will often collect a number of worms, 

 forming a large billful, before making a trip to the nest. Well, 

 the sparrow noticed this, too, and when the robin would alight to 

 pick up something more, he would dash down beside the robin 

 and snatch whatever might be in his mouth, then fly a few feet 

 off The robin would hop after him, when he would make an- 

 other short flight until the robin would give up and go and hunt 

 for something more. Mv friend saw the sparrow do this five or 

 six times one afternoon.— Elliott Corns, Washington, D. C. 



The Black-footed Ferret {JPutofitis mgripes) IN Texas. — 

 Mr. Frank J. Thompson, of the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, 

 informs me of the reception there of a living specimen of this 

 rare species, perhaps the first one ever placed on public exhibi- 

 tion. It was captured near Abilene, in Taylor county, Texas, a 

 locality far beyond the previously known range of the species, as 

 assigned in my "Fur Bearing Animals." — Elliott Cones, Washing- 

 ton, £>. C. 



The Occurrence of Demodex phylloides Csokor, in Amer- 

 ican Swine. — The meat inspector for thecity of Toronto, Mr. R. 

 Awde, has just handed me for examination, a piece of pork skin, 

 marked by numerous white spots shining through the epidermis, 

 which on separation of the subcutaneous tissue, turn out to be 

 sebaceous glands, enlarged to the size of a grain of barley, and 

 crowded with multitudes of mites (Demodex) in various stages of 

 development. The mites belong to the species described by Dr. 

 Johann Csokor (Verhandl der K. K. zool-bot. Gesell in Wien. 

 Vol. xxix, 1879, p. 419, et seg. and PI. vm), as occasioning large 

 cutaneous pustules and even ulcers in a herd of swine from Galicia; 

 so far as I am aware it has not been recorded since. 



Demodex phylloides measures only 0.24""" >'" length, while Z>. 

 folticulorum (the little mite which occurs in the sebaceous glands 



length is solely due to the excessive shortness of the abdomen in 

 D. 'phr/Ioidcs, tor the cephalothorax in the latter form is undoubt- 

 edly more robust than in any other of the described species. 



D. cants occasions a very troublesome cutaneous affection in 

 dogs. D. ovina occurs' in the meibomian glands in sheep (vide 

 Zu'rn, Schmarotzer cler Ilaussaugethieren), and Mr. W. Faxon has 

 recorded D. folliculoruui from the ox, but from an economic point 

 of view. D.pkylioides may possibly become more disastrous than 

 any of these should its attacks attain the extent described by 



