172 The American Naturalist. [February, 
The type of the new species was obtained in the open sea outside the 
bay of San Francisco. (Proceeds. Cal. Acad. Sci. Ser. 2, Vol. IV, 
1894.) 
Reptilia.—In the Proceedings of the Rochester Academy of Sci- 
ences Vol. II, 1892 is published a paper, by F. W. Warner, on the 
Ophidians of the Southern States which contains numerous inaccurac- 
ies, and which should have been excluded or corrected by the editors 
of that volume. 
Aves.—In a paper entitled “ The Origin of certain North Amer- 
ican Birds as Determined by their Routes of Migration,” Dr. Chapman 
points out that the Bobolinks which nest west of the Rocky Mts. do 
not migrate southward with the birds of the Western Province, but re- 
trace their steps and leave the United States by way of Florida, thus 
furnishing evidence of gradual extension of range westward and of the 
stability of routes of migration. (Abstr. Proceeds. Linn. Soc. New 
York, 1893-94.) 
Mammalia.—tThe three complete skeletons and two skulls of Por- 
poises collected by Dr. Abbot during his recent cruise among islands 
north of Madagascar are identified by Mr. F. W. True with Prode/ph- 
inus attenuatus Gray. Dr. Abbot’s notes concerning these specimens 
include a description of the coloration of each animal when captured so 
that it is now possible to correlate the external characters with those of 
the skeleton of this genus. (Proceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. xvii, 
1894.) ; 
Professor J. T. Wilson regards the dumb-bell-shaped bone in Orni- 
thorhynchus as a true “ anterior vomer ” formed by the fusion of bilater- 
ally symmetrical halves; and both in its nasal and in its palatine rela- 
tions it resembles the palatine lobe of the vomer in the alligator 
Caiman niger. (Proceeds Linn. Soc. N. S. W., March, 1894.) 
A collection of Mammals from the Island of Trinidad referred to Dr. 
J. A. Allen and Prof. Chapman for identification adds one species to 
the list of Bats of that Island, raises the number of known Trinidad 
Rodents from 7 to 19, and of indigenous Muridae from one to eight, 
six of which are described as new.. (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 
V, 1893.) | 
After a critical survey of the dental and cranial characters of Ursus 
cinnamomeus, U. arctos. U. horribilis and U. americanus Mr. A. E, 
Brown reaches the conclusion expressed some years ago by J. A. Allen, 
