1885,] Zoblogy. ` 407 
window they are found to be curled up together in their straw 
nest. It may be that in this case “ possuming” is only another 
word for hibernating. 
All of our experiments lost a ‘part of their value because the 
animals are in confinement; but, with the two exceptions given 
above, where habit controlled, all seemed to prove that hiberna- 
tion is not an inherited and peculiar trait, but one that may be 
adopted when the conditions demand it. The NATURALIST shall 
hear of our further work in this direction —W. W. Thoburn (Lab- 
oratory of Tilinois Wesleyan University). 
Tue CHAMELEON VivipARous.—According to the newspapers a 
United States vessel recently arrived at Brooklyn which had 
taken on*some animals at Capetown, Africa, among these was a 
female chameleon which during its passage gave birth to eleven 
young ones, all of which died —S. Lockwood. 
A Crow Crackinc Crams.—My son-in-law assures me that 
years ago it was not so rare to see, at Port Monmouth, the com- 
mon crow (Cervus americanus) take a quahog (Venus mercenaria) 
up high in the air and drop it on a certain fence with a flat top- 
rail, thus cracking it. The sight has been witnessed by several 
persons. He was not able to say kow the bird carried the bivalve, 
but it is supposable in its claws. It must have required nice cal- 
culating certainly —S. Lockwood. 
Tue TURKEY BUZZARD BREEDING IN PENNSYLVANIA.—On May 
20, 1882, I visited a “nest” of the turkey buzzard (Cathartes aura 
eggs were dirty white, spotted irregularly with reddish brown 
purple— Witmer Stone, Germantow. 
A Beaver Dam BUILT witHour Woop.—The idea that the 
beaver must have wood with which to build his dam is so univer- 
sal that an exception to the rule seems worthy of record. __ 
In September of 1883, near the headwaters of Beaver river, 
