ZOOLOGY. 189 
so far in the interior of Wisconsin, a thousand miles from the 
coast, is somewhat remarkable, and naturally suggests the idea that 
this species may be found not so very rare, but that it may occur 
elsewhere and have been mistaken for jissipes, which.is a cosmo- 
politan bird, and is found both in America and Europe. Its prin- 
cipal difference from the fissipes, consists in its white tail, and it 
wil] be well for naturalists in various parts of the country to be on 
the lookout for a white-tailed tern.—'T..M. Brewer. 
P. S. Mr. Robert Ridgway has kindly made the accompanying 
description of this new acquisition to our fauna: — 
ł 
Wing, 7°50; tail, 2°90; culmen, -90; tars sel Se middle toe, *65. Head, neck and lower 
parts to the anus, including the lining of the wings, uniform plumbeous-black; anal re- 
gion, crissum, and upper tail ER imma Ark te snowy white; tail white, neers with 
ashy. Mantle dark plumbeous, shading insensiy into the black of the nape 
lighter, more hoary, aan aso becoming gradually kps at the anterior border of 
. the lesser covert region; primaries like the mantle, but more hoary, their shafts pure 
white. Bill, purplish black, ee lower mandible more reddish; legs and feet deep 
orange-red. f 
This specimen is very similar to a European one in the Smithsonian Collection, but 
differs in | ing tl pper tail t d tail ch p r ite. 
Economic Enromotogy.—Dr. LeConte’s excellent paper, on 
“ Hints for the Promotion of Economic Entomology in the United 
States,” will be read with much interest, and do great 
The call for the expansionand reorganization of the Department 
of Agriculture is opportune and meets a similar and constantly 
increasing demand for such a reorganization from the agricul- 
turists of the country and especially of the west. The few real 
| farmers, sprinkled with the mass of lawyers, politicians, merchants 
and professional men, who go to make up the bodies composing 
our state and natjonal legislatures, seem to have had little voice 
~ — in the past, in the Alliog of offices created ostensibly for their 
: benefit. 
= Tt is a burning disgrace that the agricultural interests of the 
country, which form the basis of our national prosperity, should 
have been represented in the seat of government by an untutored 
market-gardener like Isaac Newton; or should still be repre- 
_ Sented by one who is so little in sympathy with the progressive 
agricultural spirit, and who seems to give so much dissatisfaction, 
that hardly an agricultural journal in the land speaks a word in 
his favor. With a man at the head of this department, possessing - 
_ large culture and scientific attainment, like Dr. LeConte, or ex- 
raced ee knowledge and great executive abili, P like 
