378 The American Naturalist. [April, 
fantastic curves, spirals, counter-marches, snakelike twists and turns, 
with the sky for a background, that ever a company of genus Homo 
executed on a finely polished floor. For instance, one evening they 
separated into two parts, one going to the right, the other to the left, 
each division making a grand circle outward, then joining again for a 
forward movement. There were some stragglers, but the figure was 
distinct and was twice performed, with other evolutions interspersed. 
Then a long, snake-like movement from the upper air down, very 
slightly inclined from the vertical, with two twists in it, a loop around 
a tall tree farther down the stream and back, brought them into the 
tree-tops for roosting. That was the cleanest and most astonishing 
figure I ever saw them perform. Occasionally they drop down into 
the trees like pieces of paper, but oftener the final alighting is a com- 
bined movement, sometimes in the shape of an inverted cone—usually 
in a grand sweep after their most elaborate evolution. Frequently 
they swoop out from the trees company after company, several times 
before the last settling, their wings not only making a tremendous 
whirring, but a perceptible movement of the air. Their chattering 
keeps up from half to three-quarters of an hour after they settle in 
the trees, and their dark little bodies against the sunset sky look as 
numerous as the leaves. Often they weigh down a branch and then a 
great chattering, scolding and re-adjustment ensues. Sometimes there 
is a movement through the tree-tops to one spot as if a conference were 
called, and a more surprising amount of chattering than before. Then 
in a few minutes back they come till the tree-tops are about equally 
full. The noise which they make is suggestive of the whirring of 
looms in a cotton mill, heard through the open windows, or of some 
kinds of water-falls. 
They leave the trees in the morning a little before sunrise. August 
26th we watched them go out. At 4.15 there were sounds as if of 
awakening and gradually the noise increased. At 4.25 they began to 
arise in companies at intervals of two or three minutes. They did not 
remain long in the locality and by five o’clock not one was to be seen. 
The Distribution of Seeds by Birds.—I have just sent a MS 
on The Dissemination of Yucca aloifolia to Professor Trelease for pub- 
lication in the Missouri Botanical Garden Reports. My attention has 
been called to certain observations therein of a zoological nature that 
seem rather remarkable. Iam convinced that the observations are 
correct, but am not informed on the literature of the subject and thus 
