PIROT EE 
ZOOLOGY. 757 
the larva would easily be mistaken for that of a worm. On an- 
other occasion he writes that “it was while fresh from the impres- 
sion produced on me by the views of the American scientist that 
I write the last portion of my general review, although I had pre- 
viously arrived myself to the conclusion, based upon the homolo- 
gies of the muscles and setæ, that the Brachiopods are nearly 
allied to the Chætopod Annelides.” 
MeraĮmorrnoses or THE Harr Worm.—M. Villot is publishing à 
monograph of the Hair Worms in the “Archives de Zoologie Ex- 
perimentale.” He has found the larvæ encysted in the larvæ of 
Chironomus, and afterwards in the mucous lining of the intestines 
of fishes, in September. Thus their metamorphoses have been, in 
conjunction with the previous labors of Grube, Leidy, and Meiss- 
ner, cleared up. The larve are tadpole-shaped. The habits of 
Gordius seem quite distinct from Mermis, found living in insects. 
$ A New Orper or Hyprozoa.—Prof. Allman publishes in 
Nature” a brief account of his discovery of a French hydroid 
embedded in a sponge, which he describes under the name of 
Stephanoscyphus mirabilis, and regards as the type of a new order 
termed Thecomeduse. He regards this animal as a compound 
hydrozoon, ‘whose zooids are included in cup-like receptacles 
resembling the hydrothece of the calyptoblastic hydroids; but 
these zooids, instead of being constructed like the hydranths of 
a hydroid are formed on the plan of a medusa. It has plainly 
very decided affinities with the Hydroida, but it is nevertheless re- 
moved from these by a distance at least as great as that which 
Separates from them the Siphonophora.” 
Birps or Kansas.—Since the publication of the second edition 
of my catalogue of the birds of Kansas (Oct., 1872), six addi- 
ional species have been observed; viz: Colaptes Mexicanus, 
Helmitherus vermivorus, Dendreca striata, D. maculosa, Larus 
Delawarensis and Podiceps auritus var. Californicus.—F. H. Syow. 
Ostrich Breepinc.—The success which has attended the ostrich- 
~ breeding farms in South Africa has induced some French gentle- 
z Men to endeavor to imitate the system in Algeria, and African 
___ birds have also been sent to La Plata and other countries in South 
_ America, where it is hoped they may take the place of the native 
birds, which are inferior in quality to the African ostrich. Gener- 
sily speaking, the system on which ostrich farms are conducted is 
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