- 
342 The American Naturalist. [April, 
specimens of Strix sanctialbani confirm Mr. Lydekker in the view that 
the Strigids must be subdivided into the families Strigide and Bubon- 
ide. (Proceeds. Zool. Soc. London, 1893.) 
According to Mr. F. L. Ransome, the eruptive rocks of Point Bon- 
ita, California, are differentiated into two formations which, from 
chemical analysis, seem to have been derived from the same basic 
magma. One is compact, amygdaloidal, does not show crystals to the 
unaided eye and is markedly spheroidal in structure; the other is dis- 
tinctly crystalline, traversed by irregular joint planes, and is not 
spheroidal. The latter is intrusive into the sandstones and is, there- 
fore, of later age. The spheroidal basalt was probably poured out 
anterior to the deposition of the sandstone and afterwards elevated to 
its present position. The author believes the spheroidal structure to 
be a flow phenomena. The lava issued in a viscous condition, one 
sluggish outwelling of lava being piled upon another to form the 
whole mass of the flow. The former center of volcanic activity, as 
indicated by the character and position of these formations, probably 
lay to the seaward at some little distance off the present coast. (Bull. 
Dept. Geol. Univ. of California, Vol. 1, 1893.) 
