548 The American Naturalist. [June, 
The family to which this beetle belongs comprises a goodly number 
of minute beetles, found either beneath stones or wood or in ants’ nests. 
Their habits are but little known; they live on animal substances and 
their powerful mandibles and long palpal members seem to indicate 
that they capture fleet and hard shelled prey; some livein pairs while 
others are gregarious; those living in ants’ nests appear to be true in- 
quilines ; the ants which support them, by caressing the tufts of hair 
about the abdomen, cause the exudation of a fluid which they greedily 
swallow. The larve are unknown. 
An excellent monograph, by Brendel and Wickham, may be found 
in the Bull. Laborat. Nat. Hist., State Univ., Iowa, Vol. 1 and 2. 
It may be noted that two other minute beetles are always found with 
this Bryawxis, viz: Scydmenus salinator, Lec. and Rhypobius marinus, 
Lec. They are not confined to such narrow limits as the Bryazis but 
invariably occur where it occurs. 
Mr. Leng also contributed the following: Notes on Naias Flexilis. 
The water plant, Naias flexilis (Willd.), Rost. and Schmidt, reported 
by Mr. Davis at our last meeting, occurs also at Springville and at 
Bull’s Head. 
At Springville sparingly, in a small pool on the edge of the meadow, 
south of Union avenue in the second large field west of the Morning 
Star road. 
At Bull’s Head abundantly, in a ditch running south from Lam- 
bert’s Lane and about a quarter of a mile west of the Morning Star 
road. 
Mr. Arthur Hollick presented a set of three barred owl’s (Syrnium 
nebulosum) eggs and read the following memorandum: 
! In our Proceedings for April 11th, 1891, may be found a short note 
in regard toa barred owl’s nest having been found by Mr. Chas. Rufus 
Harte, in the vicinity of Bull’s Head, on March 27th of that year. On 
March 12th, 1892, it was again visited by Mr. Harte, as noted in the 
Proceedings for April 9th, 1892. On each occasion he obtained a set 
of three eggs from the nest. So far as I am aware the owls were not 
disturbed in 1893. 
Thad obtained a rough diagram of the vicinity, sketched by Mr. 
Harte, and on March 11th, of this year, I undertook to search for the 
nest. With comparatively little trouble I located the tree, which is 
situated in the patch of woodland between Bull’s Head and Willow 
B The cavity in which the nest is located faces northwest and is 
about thirty feet from the ground. The tree is about five feet in 
