1881.] Zoology. 139 
The order in which the organs of reproduction and their auxil- 
iaries make their appearance in Branchiopodide, is as follows: 1. 
Genital glands ; 2. External genitals (Spangenberg’s paper, p. 42), 
and 3. Auxiliary organs (claspers)—C. /. Gissler, Ph.D. 
HABITS OF THE ENGLISH SPARROWS IN THE UNITED STATES.— 
The severe handling which that little immigrant, the English 
sparrow (Passer domesticus), has of late received on all sides in the 
United States, and especially from our men of science, has some- . 
even his enemies acknowledge he is more to be feared than de- 
spised, and as he has also not been without his advocates, I have 
hitherto refrained from interfering, and have remained a silent 
looker on. 
nished. It was clearly a provision on the part of the bird against 
the cold of our severe winters. The gardener, who looked at it 
in the same light, informed me that he had to clean out this rub- 
bish from the houses every spring at nesting time, and that it was 
not their nests, which are altogether different. This is exceed- 
ingly interesting as pointing to the capacity for self-improvement 
in the species. I have failed to find any description of such a 
habit in the English sparrow, and it would seem to have been ac- 
quired since its advent to our shores; though it would be import- 
ant to know whether it adopts this precaution against the cold in 
the more northern countries of Europe. 
short time before the above-mentioned occurrence, one of 
those birds, in the same grounds, was noticed as being sick. 
Several of the othér sparrows waited most assiduously upon it 
with affectionate care,and kept it supplied with food which they 
continually brought it. During the night a “cold snap” set in, 
and the next morning the sick bird was seen, perched on a rail- 
ing, its companions hovering over it with evident anxiety, and 
bringing it food which they tried to make it eat. On going up to 
the bird, it was found to be dead and frozen stiff. This incident 
exhibits the species in a very different light from that in which it 
is usually represented by its American biographers. ee 
ut now comes the other side of the picture. In the following 
