during a dark stormy one they are more 
electric light. 
Among those dead or crippled were the Whip-poor-Will, Caprimul- 
gus vociferus (a very rare bird with us), pewee fly catcher, Sayornis 
fuscus, American robin, Turdus migraiorius, Maryland yellow- throat, 
ground warbler, Trichas marylandica, brown tree creeper, Certhia 
familiaris, wood thrush, Turdus 7mistelinus, white-breasted nut-hatch, 
Sitta carolinensis, hermit thrush, Turdus solitarius, song finch, Melospiza 
melodia, sometimes called song-sparrow. 
Many woodpeckers and tree creepers are in the grounds at present, 
more than were ever noted before. 
The downy woodpecker is busy at work making his ring of holes 
around the Uimtis ruba, red elm. The tree creepers have been his 
faithful assistants, though not having the power to make the holes he 
does. Both, no doubt, have done much good in ridding the grounds 
of the eggs and larva of worms that feed on the trees. 
The barn owl, Sfrix americana, has put in an appearance this fall (a 
whole family of them). They are rare in Girard College grounds. 
Quite a number of kinglets and viroes, or greenlets, were seen, but 
they were too shy to be approached, so they could not be named. 
The Towhe ground-finch, Fipilo erythropthalmus, has also paid 
us his visit and departed. By the length of his name he might have 
paid us a longer one. 
The fox-colored finch, Passerella iliaca, and many other birds of 
all the species above spoken of as killed, were also seen flying around, 
except the Whip-poor-Will.—F. H. Danenhour. 
Zoological News.— Coelentcrata.— The greater portion of Vol. 
XXXI. of the Challenger Reports is occupied by E. P. Wright's and 
Th. Studer's account of the Alcyonaria, the Pennatulacea excepted. 
This report extends to 386 pages and 49 lithographic plates. All the 
Alcyonaria save the small family Haimeidie, which may be primitive, 
tend to produce colonies by gemmce. The Gorgonacea, in which a 
large number of individuals are so distributed that each receives an 
equal share of the nutritive supply, and favored also with a supporting 
skeleton, are regarded as the highest of the class. 
Vermes.— Z/^^ Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte for 1887, issued August 
1886 ( I Rand, 2 Heft) has a notice upon the fauna of Spitzbergen by 
Dr. W. Kiikenthal, giving the results of a voyage undertaken in 1886. 
The work of description is divided between Dr. Marenzeller, who 
