812 General Notes. [ October, 
OUnusuat Actions oF A Hen Turkey.—While visiting in the 
southern part of Indiana, this spring, my attention was called to 
the strange proceedings of a young hen turkey. She was on her 
first “ setting” of eggs, and was doing her best apparently, but 
nothing came of it. For two months she kept her place steadily 
and at the end of that time an attempt was made to break up the 
nest. It was found there were but two eggs left of the seven she 
began with. It was a complete disappearance, not even a trace 
of the five missing eggs being left. The next day an egg was 
accidentally discovered in a woody pasture, a quarter of a mile 
from the nest, having been apparently dropped there. It was 
very light, being almost empty. On the following day, while 
half a dozen of the family were sitting under the trees within 
twenty yards of the nest, the turkey rose, flying high over the 
house and off towards the pasture, and in her mouth was an ¢gg- 
A visit to the nest showed but one egg left. In a short time the 
hen came walking back and took her place on the nest. It was 
evident that six eggs had been carried off in this way at different 
times and dropped in different places. Whether this proceeding 
showed a feeling of disgust on the part of the turkey, or was 
merely an instinctive clearing of the nest, I cannot say.—Fohn 
M. Coulter. 
CHANGE oF CoLoR IN CRABS AND Prawns.—Dr. Fritz Miller 
contributes some instances of this phenomenon—already discov- 
ered by Kréyer—from the Brazilian fauna. A shrimp ( Atyouda 
potimirim) has a female which, when adult and living among 
water-plants, is usually dark green, sometimes inclined to blue oF 
brown, occasionally of a pure blue with a pale brown streak down 
the back; when put into a glass vessel it fades to an increasingly 
transparent in the course of a few days; a dark brown specimen 
placed with a number of others which had the usual greenish hue 
assumed their color in a few minutes. A black Palamo 
from deep water became first dark, then pale blue, and th 
losing its even distribution, became accumulated in many coer 
e color, 
lost all color, with the exception of the caudal swimmeret, 
remained blue. The male of a small land crab (Gelasimus), 
carapace is marked with pure white and light green, loses 
colors when captured, and they are replaced by a uniform gray. 
Fournal of the Royal Microscopical Society. 
Tue Biue Gutt.—During some of our wet seasons a little path | 
gull stays with us all through the summer. I believe they alway 
come here in the spring, but if the water dries out of the pone 
sloughs, they do not remain—probably retiring to the lakes, whe om 
open water is always to be found in warm weather. They are oT 
tame, flying often very close to men and teams. They sel pin | 
alight upon the ground, and it is a popular notion that they @~ 
these 
