394 - General Notes. [ May, 
shallow water, apparently in search of something for food. When 
any one approached too closely they flew into the tree-tops near by, 
returning as soon as they were left unmolested. They continued 
this unusual habit for a week or more, but finally left us a few 
days before Christmas.—Charles Aldrich, Webster City, lowa, Fan. 
, 188. 
Tue Inpico Brrp.—Writers on the ornithology of this section 
seem to convey the idea that this beautiful little bird ( Cyanospiza 
cyanea Baird) is not common here, I think this is an error. 
have frequently seen them in spring and early summer, and while 
I have never looked for their nests, | have had no doubt that they 
breed in the thickets and groves along Boone river, I used to 
see one quite often, which appeared to me to be a little trifle 
lighter in color than those generally met with. The blue was 
paler. I have seen him and heard him sing for several days in 
succession, and as I observed his peculiarity of color, there 
could be little doubt regarding his identity as one and the same 
bird. This was on the border of a crab-apple and hazel brush 
thicket, and the nest would no doubt have been found by search- 
ing for it. I see them so often about the time of breeding that I 
have never doubted that this region may be set down as one of 
their regular habitats.— Charles Aldrich, Webster City, Iowa, 188T. 
Zootocicat Nores.—The process of self-division in Euglypha 
alveolata, a flagellata infusorian, has been observed and illustrated 
by Dr. August Gruber. A very large ascidian ( Czona ocellata 
Agassiz) has been discovered by Professor Verrill in abundance on 
the rocks and wharves at Newport, R. I. It is our largest and most 
elegant ascidian, but rare and very local in its distribution. It 
will be remembered that the European Littorina littorea was intro- 
duced on the shores of Maine, about 1868, but at a much earlier 
date on the shores of Nova Scotia. During the winter of 1 879-80, it 
was found by Professor S. I. Smith, of New Haven. Two other lit- 
toral species of European shells, not before recorded as American 
(Truncatella truncatula and Assiminia grayana), were found by 
Professor Verrill at high water, among the docks at Newport.—— 
Professor Semper’s book, entitled The Natural Conditions of Exist- 
ence as they affect animal life, has been published and will deserve 
a wide circulation. Itis favorably reviewed in Nature, by Professor 
Ray Lankester, who, however, finds fault with the orthodoxy of Sem- 
per’s Darwinism. It is evident that we are to have sects and sec- 
tarianism among evolutionists. We had supposed that Mr.Darwin 
had modified his own Darwinism, certainly among evolutionists 
marckianism, as in our opinion it should be. I 
ous parasite has been hatched from larve found on two sp! 
(Linyphia) ; the larva were apodous and adhered to the abdomen 
of the spider, which, when full-grown, they fully equaled in Kore 
The embryology of Selachians (Acanthias) has been recently 
