1884. ] Zoology, 89 
or sunfish, Pomotis vulgaris, about one inch in length. In one 
of these pools two of the common garter snakes, Eutenia sirtalis, 
were catching these little fishes. Happening to pass the same 
place the next day, I found the pools dried up and the fish all 
dead. I was much surprised to see one of these snakes hastily 
moving away with one of the dead fish in his mouth. Is it com- 
mon for these snakes to feed upon fish? Is it not uncommon 
for any serpent to take as food an animal already dead >—Z£. A. 
Gastman, Decatur, Illinois. 
CALIFORNIA LonG-BILLED Marsu WreEN.—June 18, 1882, a 
friend and myself started for Soap lake, San Felipe, with the in- 
tention of getting a few sets of eggs of this bird. Arriving there 
we pulled on our long boots and plunged into the tules in differ- 
ent directions. After an hour's hard work we returned and 
reported—one set of badly incubated eggs. My friend’s expe- 
rience was about the same as mine. I had found and examined 
some twenty-five nests, and of that number only three had been 
lined and used; two had been deserted, the third had the above- 
mentioned set. The other nests were of the same appearance out- 
_ Wwardly, being woven of coarse bark of tules, but without the soft 
wooly lining of fine shreds of cotton tule and ducks’ feathers. 
Some looked new, others old, and were situated, mostly, just out 
of reach in the taller clumps of tules. I saw but few birds, and 
these were fearless, approaching within two feet and looking me 
in the eye. Now, what can be the object of all these extra nests? 
Do the other birds build them for a shelter, and in case they are 
disturbed can immediately occupy another nest, or like children 
who build mud houses for amusement, and because they have 
Nothing else to do? I hope to make another trip to the place 
when I have more time, and to be in better season.—A, D. But- 
lerfield, San José, Cal., in Oölogist and Ornithologist. X 
ZobLocicaL Nores.—Z/nfusoria—The parasites found in the 
Oysters of Arcachon and La Rochelle are the subject of a com- 
munication of A. Certes to the French Zoological Society. 
‘Among these are the following Infusoria: Hexamiia inflata Du- 
Jardin, Trypanosoma balbianii Certes; a species of Enchelyodon 
Which conjugates after developing actively by fissiparity, and 
after conjugation’ again becomes actively fissiparous, and Proro- 
centrum micans Ehrenberg. i 
Celenterates—M. Mérejowsky has contributed to the Bulletin 
of the French Zoological Society an account of the development 
of the endodermic cells ; the nucleolus takes the form of a chap- 
let bent upon itself, the grains of the chaplet separate and divide, 
and the ripe egg before fecundation does not present the least 
trace of a nucleolus in its entirely homogeneous nucleus. The 
blastula is composed of cells of very various sizes, its walls are 
