1887} Zoology. 291 
Florida Snake-Bird (/Votus anhinga) in this State. According to 
i full 
Mr. Fletcher M. Noe, of Indianapolis, a fine male, in 
plumage, was taken on the West Fork of White River, two 
miles south of Indianapolis, on August 25, 1886. A month 
later Mr. Noe received a specimen of the Western Grebe (Æch- 
morphus occidentalis), which was killed near the same place.—B. 
W. Evermann, Indiana State Normal School, February 14, 1887. 
Zoological News.—Birps.—At the recent Scientific Congress 
at Paris, M. de Montessus read a memoir upon the present state 
of ornithological science in Paris. Among other facts he men- 
tioned the capture of Syzoicus lodoisig, an Australian gallina- 
ceous bird, in the Department of Saone-et-Loire. Previously a 
specimen had been killed in Lombardy, and these are the only 
specimens known to have been taken in Europe, but are suf- 
ficent to cause the enumeration of the species among the casual 
` visitors to that country. 
Worms.—Mr. James E. Benedict describes one new genus and 
five new species of tubicolous Annelids in the “ Proceedings 
U. S. Nat. Museum for 1886.” “All of them are from the warmer 
waters of America, and were collected by the Fish Commission 
steamer “ Albatross.” 
Mottusca.—Paul Pelseneer, in the “ Bulletin Sci. Dépt. Nord,” 
II., vol. ix. (reprinted in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 
Histery for January, 1887), gives a review of the Gymnosoma- 
tous Pteropods. He recognizes only six genera, arranged in four 
families among the previously described species, but describes a 
new genus and species, Wotobranchea mcdonaldi, from off the 
coast of the Carolinas. Only a single specimen is known, which 
is in the United States National Museum. The foot-notes ap- 
pended to the reprint of the article add considerably to the 
value of the paper. 
EcuINopERMS.—Rev. J. G. Swan calls attention, in the Buletin 
of the United States Fish Commission, to the abundance of Holo- 
thurians in the region of Queen Charlotte Islands and in Alaska, 
and suggests that it may prove profitable to collect and cure 
them into trepang for the Chinese market. In China they com- 
manda price of about forty or fifty dollars a ton, and their prep- 
aration is not very difficult. 
SPONGES.—At a recent meeting of the Zoological Society of 
London, Dr. R. von Lendenfeld read a paper on the classifica- 
tion of sponges and their systematic position. His extensive in- 
vestigations in the rich sponge fauna of Australia, as well as on 
the collections of the “ Challenger” expedition, have given him 
facilities rarely excelled. He pro an arrangement in which 
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