80 General Notes. 
G. A. Boulenger (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1887) describes 
several new Reptiles and Batrachians in the British Museum, includ- 
ing an Anniella and a Hyla coper,! from Texas; and an Eiemias 
from the Guinea Coast. s 
Years ago Dumeril and Bibron described an Australian 
snake under the name Furina textilis. It has been omitted 
from all recent lists of the reptiles of Australia, upon the sup- 
position that it was based upon the common Diemenia supercil- 
iosa. ecently, Mr. Froggat has rediscovered the species in the 
neighborhood of Port Darwin. 
MAMMALIA.—Among the few beaver colonies still existing in 
Europe is that at Amlid, some distance from Christiansand, Nor- 
way. Sometimes as many as a dozen animals may be seen here in 
the water at one time. Their huts are built close to the shore, and 
have two stories, one above and the other below the water level. 
The walls are of timber, the roof of ‘twigs and mud. The beavers 
have felled all the aspen-trees in the vicinity, and have begun to 
attack ‘the birches. They cut down trees upwards of eighteen inches 
across at the root, but do not seem to use the larger trunks. The 
branches are dragged to the water-side along regular “ log-runs,” 
which are cleared of interloping roots. Sentinels are posted to give. 
the alarm in case of danger, when all the animals leave their dwell- 
ings for the water. 
A new species of Spermophilus (S. bactrianus Scully) and Ello- 
bius intermedius Scully, are among the mammals collected by Cap- — 
tain C. E. Yate, of the Afghan Boundary Commission. 
E. P. Ramsay has recently described three new mammals 
(Antechinus froggata, Perameles auratus, and Mus burtoni) from 
North West Australia. 
Worms.—In the fresh-water Dendrocelous planariansis an | 
organ which is usually termed the uterus. Ijima rega 
this as a gland for forming the egg cocoon, and the latest student 
(Hallez) agrees with him. Hallez regards Ijima’s muscular 
gland as a force-pump to drive the male elements. into the cloaca, — 
and that possibly to expel the ova and cocoons. Its resemblance 
in certain particulars to the bursa copulatrix of the Rhabdocoela 15 
pointed out. 
Brirps.—Dr. W. A. Haswell, of Sydney, N. S. W., recently read | 
a paper before the Linnean Society on the early stages of the emu, 
detailing the history of the primitive streak, mesoderm, neurenteri® — 
1 The H. arenicola Cope. 
