ZOOLOGY. 229 
tion and the hyg mii conditions of the atmosphere over these 
different areas of the continent. 
The statement Mr. Ridgway makes, notwithstanding the gener- 
ally complimentary tone of the article as regards the present writer, 
that all the laws I announced (with one exception) “are substan- 
tially the same as the generalizations made by Professor Baird 
in 1866,” seems to me to be by no means wholly warranted. Being 
forced to refer to the matter, I may as well state here that I claim 
the three following general laws as original: viz: 1, increase of 
intensity of color southward; 2, greater depth of color with in- 
creased atmospheric humidity ; 3, enlargement of peripheral parts 
to the southward. These, with the fourth law relating to size, 
cover, in a general way, geographical variation in proportion, size 
and color. Baird’s law of size and his facts of variation in re- 
spect to the proportional development of parts, taken with similar 
ones I had myself observed, were of course incentives to further 
research, and suggestive of the probable existence of some gen- 
eral laws of geographical variation of which these facts were the 
expressions. —J. A. ALLEN. 
Tue Hasrrs or POLISTES AND PELOP&US. —My friend, Mr. Uhler, 
will pardon my incredulity ; but the conviction forced itself on my 
mind, in reading the interesting paper on pp. 678-9, vol. vii, that 
some one had sadly confounded the two genera above mentioned. 
First, the description of the mud cells exactly applies to those 
of our common Pelopeus lunatus Fabr., as do, also, the descrip- 
tions of the method of building, and of storing them with young 
Spiders. The actual cells, whicl#I saw at Portland, would be at 
once recognized as belonging to this species by those familiar with 
its habits—the unusual length,of some of them resulting from the 
nature of the beetle burrow or cavity in which they were built. 
‘Secondly, the habit which Mr. Uhler deems exceptional, or not 
belonging to Pelopæus, viz., that of not nursing its young and of 
sealing up the cell when once stored is precisely the habit which 
does belong to Pelopæus and which does not belong to Polistes. 
Mr. F. Smith has recorded facts which would indicate that some 
of the digger wasp such as Mellinus, may open their burrows 
from‘time to time to supply fresh food to their young ;* but we 
have yet no positive proof of the fact, and I know of nothing on 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1869. 
ie a : 
