1884.] Zoö:0gy. re 
i 
experiments showed that brown-bread, johnny-cake, and pastry 
made chiefly of Indian meal, are eaten readily by cats, and that 
oat-meal, in its different forms, is more agreeable to them than is 
food which consists mostly of wheat flour. This appetite for corn 
explained why I had seen, a number of years ago, two half-wild 
kittens stealing daily the uncooked meal mixed with water and 
given to chickens, and it shed light on the reason for the pecu- 
liar avidity with which some cats feed upon popcorn. I had 
previously attributed the appetite which cats have for popcorn to 
the preference that they exhibit for crisp food, for food that crackles 
while being chewed. 
lt would be entertaining and instructive if some one would 
take advantage of the cat-shows which are held now and then in 
our large cities, where a considerable number of pet cats are col- 
lected together, and write out a series of notes on the strange 
appetites acquired by the feline race from its intimacy with man. 
Statements should be based upon actual experiments made in 
each case by the writer, and not upon the assertions of the owners 
of the cats. The percentage of cats that would eat corn, raisins, 
candy, and other substances not ordinarily eaten by cats, could be 
determined readily in that way.— George Dimmock, Cambridge, 
Mass, March 14, 1884. 
_ ZoorocicaL Nores.—/nfusorians.—Dr. A. C. Stokes describes 
inthe American Journal of Science for July, several new species 
of infusorians from fresh water taken from the sediment at the 
bottom of an aquarium. Loxodes vorax Stokes was observed to 
make a choice in its food. Of the new genus Apgaria, three new 
Species are described ; of the new genus Ileonema a new species, 
and of the new genus Solenotus, two species are described ; all 
are figured, 
Celenterata—M. Bedot has investigated the nature of the 
organ usually called a liver, situated between the two lamellz 
nat form the pneumatocyst of Velella. The principal part o 
the organ consists of a mass of cnidoblasts, Above this mass of 
cnidoblasts is a layer of small tubes closely packed together, and 
Containing cellules, some of which are black or dark green. The 
less closely placed canals below the mass of cnidoblasts have but 
few ins. M. Bedot believes that this organ is that which 
forms the cnidoblasts, and he finds in the lower lamella of the 
floor of the pneumatocyst numerous openings, by which the 
Stinging cells find their way into the ectoderm. If any part of 
Organ subserves the purpose of a liver, it can only | 
superior portion in which the dark cellules occur. W. K. 
Brooks (loc. cit.) contributes some notes upon the larval forms of 
The first of these remains attached to the stem for some time after 
