Pay; 
Ei 
es 
324 General Notes. [March, 
children excite more or less fear. I have often wondered why — 
they were called “ cow-killers ;” having till the past summer never 
heard of any animal or person being injured by them. A cow, 
however, eating grass, and with the nose pressing one of them 
would probably be stung very severely. The sting, iong, black 
and sharp, can be protruded almost the length of the whole body. 
Last summer I met with two persons who had been stung by the 
Mutilla—one, a negro man, who was stung when a cow-boy in 
Virginia; the other, now owner of Rallew’s Creek Mills, in For- 
syth Co., when a boy was riding under a dogwood bush, and 
knocked off one which fell into his shoe. The pain from the 
sting was great, the foot swelled, and he was lamed for a few 
days; but in neither of the cases were the symptoms alarming. 
This insect is remarkably tough—difficult to kill. Unless the _ 
ground is very hard, it may be trodden upon with the boot, and 
rubbed and scrubbed into the earth, and yet when the foot is re- 
moved it will work itself out and run off apparently unhurt. Its 
whole envelope has the toughness of leather. The specimens sent 
are evidently larger than the M. ewropea.—Nereus Mend 
M. D., Westminster, Guilford Co., N. C. 
ZOOLOGY. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE Linnæan Soctety or New York—Ihs 
Society, which has been in existence for several years, issued It 
December, 1882, its first volume of Transactions in royal octal! 
form of 168 pages, and is unexceptienable as regards papel * 
presswork. The spirit of the papers making up the text 15 €X 
cellent, as they are based on extensive and painstaking field work 
The first article is the longest, it is devoted to a fresh and vale 
account of the mammals of the Adirondack region, a work Wir 
Wm. Dutcher, is entitled “Is not the fish crow (Corvus ossifrages 
Wilson) a winter as well as a summer resident at the northera oe 
evidence tending strongly to show that the bird is a perc : 
winter resident in its northern. habitat, instead of a rare “ma 
visitor. The third and last article is “A review of the ae | 
birds of a part of the Catskill mountains, with prefata g knell 
on the faunal and floral features of the region.” By E.F. 
Some of the mammals and all the batrachians and reptiles . te 
in the Catskills are enumerated. The author does not acc? 
claim that two efts, Diemyctylus miniatus and viridescens The ide - 
tical, as claimed by a writer in this journal (xii, 399). val histor : 
is an interesting and comprehensive sketch of the na 
of a beautiful mountain region. 
REMARKS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF MARGARITANA MAR 
ERA (Linn).—Already much has been said in the P 
NATURALIST in regardto this species, yet a fuller expose 
