* 
744 General Notes. [July, 
cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers, ants making slaves, the larve , 
of the Ichneumonide feeding within the live bodies of their prey, 
cats playing with mice, otters and cormorants with living fish, not 
as instincts specially given by the Creator, but as very small 
of one general law leading to the advancement of all organe — 
bodies—Multiply, vary; let the strongest live and the weakest — 
die.” 4 
DREAMING IN VERSE.—Having a turn of mind for rhyming, I _ 
had frequently dreamed in verse. On one occasion my husband — 
heard me repeat distinctly two lines in verse. He asked mevery — 
gently, “ What is the next line?” I replied, in my sleep, “You — 
guess the next line, and I will tell you the last.” His merry laugh 
awoke me and, curiously enough, I could not recall my dreamor — 
the lines which I had spoken aloud.— Mrs. Prof. T. H. Rich, Bates 
ege, Me. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. ! 
Mr. Bancrort’s New Vorumrs.—Scarcely a week pass — 
in which the editor of this department of the NATURALIST $ — 
not importuned with some such question as this, “What one — 
work will give me the best account of ancient and modern Mexico 
and Central America?” To this question there can a 
one answer. By far the best and most comprehensive account ® 
that whole region is the monumental work of Hubert Howe 
Bancroft. We are not now discussing the style of the a 
tion, abounding in metaphors which only show the enthusiasm 
the writer. Neither are we saying that the author 1s always 
right—he himself, over and over again, admits that his groun cá 
not firm beneath his feet. But looking at the cos the intn a 
machinery of research, the painstaking, the unwearied and 
the preface, in which Mr. Bancroft sets forth the d 
new series, defines his methods, credits his assistants, critics. 1 
a lance at historical theorists, and, we regret, de gee q 
Then follows, pages xv-xx1, analyses of the xxVI ne 
into which the volume is divided. From page xxv to DOM i 
his characteristic manner, the author presents a bibliography a 
Central American literature, in which not less than bag large : 
given. Some of these are the names of works for wh 4 
sums of money have been paid, and all of them have Proved bf i 
roughly exhausted by the faithful corps of indexers employ’ e- 
the author. The introductory chapter relates to the. cos 
Spanish society when Spain began her American oration oa 
the close of the chapter is an encyclopedia of into not 15 
geographical knowledge and discovery prior to th ce 
! Edited by Professor Oris T. Mason, 1305 Q street, N. W., waT q 
