1881. ] Zoology. 905 
in the stomach of that one bird, with no other traces of crayfish 
remains. JI can hardly believe that the bird had eaten thirteen 
crayfishes, or if it had, that the gastroliths should be all that re- 
mained of them in the stomach. Can it be that the bird finds 
these objects so plenty about the water’s edge that it swallows 
them to serve as general stones in the “gizzard?” Since Mr. 
Aldrich has shown (see the October NATURALIST) that this bird 
feeds upon live fish, it may be that it also eats the crayfish, but 
even that supposition would hardly account for the presence in 
its stomach of so many of these peculiar bodies, with none of the 
_ other parts. —F. E. LZ. Beal. 
Avian Ripers.—Dr. Merrill’s interesting account of the belief 
of the Crow Indians that a small bird, probably a grebe, performs 
its migration on the back of the sandhill crane, was no doubt new 
to our readers. It appears, however, that a similar belief is widely 
spread among various tribes of North American Indians. Dr. 
errill’s account referred to the Crows, but he mentioned also 
that the Crees entertained the same belief in reference to the 
white or whooping crane. Recently, in the London Nature, Mr. 
John Rae gives an account of the supposed passage of certain 
small birds on the back of the Canada geese, as related by the 
Northern Indians, which he apparently believes in. 
It is generally asserted by the Naskegon Cree Indians, who 
dwell about the south-western part of Hudson’s bay, that a small 
ird, one-of the Fringillidze, performs its northward migration in 
spring on the back of the Canada goose (Bernicla canadensis). 
| en a Movement towards warmer regions. 4th. That the return 
of birds to their breeding stations, which are their only true homes, 
_ ‘8S prompted by the recurrence of the season of procreation and 
