94 General Notes. 
large groups of animals for which the evidence of a direct genetic 
connection is better than in the case of the Ganoids and Teleos 
teans. Two other supposed distinctive characters between these 
two groups have been shown to be not well founded, as Boas has 
recently discoverd a conus arteriosus in Butirinus and other bony 
fish, while a spiral valve was long ago discovered by Valenciennes 
ina bony fish ( Chirocentrus dorab). Moreover, Huxley claims, with 
Balfour, that in the brain of Lepidosteus the epithalami “ becomt 
exactly similar to the so-called ‘cerebral hemispheres’ of the bony 
fishes;” he then adds, “ In all the Teleosteans, in fact, the bodies 
called ‘cerebral hemispheres’ are not the exact equivalents of the 
structures so named either in the higher Vertebrata or in the 
Selachians, but are epithalami, just as in the Ganoids. Thus, 
cerebral structure, as in other respects, the Ganoids and the 
Teleosteans are as closely related to one another as they ae 
different from the Selachians,” - 
Batrachians and Reptiles —Prof. E.D. Cope(Proc. Acad. Nat. Sch 
Phila.) contributes considerable additional information respe 
the geographical distribution of various batrachians and Be 
in Western North America. Among other results, the range % | 
Spea hammondi is extended to the Rocky mountains, a new* i 
phiopus is described from the Great Basin, and Rana pretiosa $ 
proved to extend into that district. The Northern Pacific o 
especially represented by Bascanium vetustum, Rana pre. 
Bufo columbiensis, extends in Idaho to the Rocky mountains. © 
comparison of the principal families and genera of cold-bloodé 
vertebrata found in the Nearctic, Sonoran, and Neotrop 
regions is given, in order to show the far greater relationship 
the Sonoran to the Nearctic than to the Neotropical. W. 
Birds.—In the proceedings of the Zoölogical Society, Mr. 
N. Parker states that on the whole the respiratory organs 0 i 
South American ostrich (Rhea) very nearly resembles that of th? 
Carinate birds ; but in several points it shows an intermediate Ch 
dition between the latter and Apteryx. The Bulletin of ™ i 
Nuttall Ornithological Club for Jan., 1883, contains, among ° 
good articles, notes on a lateral hermaphrodite green-tailed towfi 
though in plumage it resembled the females. B. F. Goss descri®® 
the breeding habits of Maximilian’s jay and Clarke’s crow, and 
Holtenhoff, Jr., describes the nest and eggs of LeConte’s thra: lls: 
——Mr. N. C. Brown has found specimens of Zonotrichia alien 
: h zesoth 
amy in the blue bird and marsh blackbird is recorded by Professor S 
on Wolf river, Wis., is described by F. L. Grundtvig ——A HP 
