1276 General Notes. [December, 
that the egg is meroblastic. No statement, says Science, was 
given in the telegram as to whether the observations related to 
the duck-bill (Ornithorhynchus), or to the spiny ant-eater 
(Echidna); but the main points of interest are the discovery of 
the oviparous habits of a mammal and the meroblastic develop- 
ment of its egg, as occurs in reptiles, since the eggs of mammals 
are, as embryologists would say, regularly protoblastic. This 
shows, says the reporter, that we must turn to the reptiles for the 
ancestors of the mammals. 
THE American BADGER IN On10.—Last summer there appeared 
in.our local papers several sensational articles about a so-called 
“ shoul,” which was robbing the graves and devouring the dead 
in some village or villages in Wood county. 
I did not, of course, pay much attention to these wonderful 
stories ; but some time after noticing them I saw outside a beer 
saloon on one of our principal streets a placard to the effect that 
the “ Wood county ghoul or grave-robber,” was to be seen 
within. The man inside informed me that many people had been 
to see the strange creature, but no one knew exactly what it was, 
but the best informed pronounced it a nondescript animal hith- 
erto unknown. A single glance sufficed to show that it was 4 
fine and unusually large specimen of the American badger, Tax- 
idea americana. a 
The poor beast had been zaught in a large steel bear-trap, 
had lost one of his fore feet. He seemed quite docile and ari 
tented except when the keeper stirred him up with a stout ciu 
when he snarled viciously, and displayed enormous “Oi, whe 
0 
of course destitute of any foundation in fact. : 
animal hereabouts is evident enough from the failu! tify it. 
numerous persons, hunters and others, who saw it to idently 
—/. H. Pooley, M.D., Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 22, 1884. 
i series of 
Puases oF KANGAROO Lire. — The accompanying illustrate 
sketches, says the Justrated Sydney News, serve to ™ In its 
three particular phases of marsupial life, so to term ee kanga- 
wild state there is perhaps no animal more timid than t the acute 
roo, and in proportion to its natural timidity it possesses 
sense of hearing. When grazing in mobs they are es, 
the alert against surprise from their greatest natural tad them 
dingo and the Australian black, whose cunning in sta! cating 3P- 
_ is marvelous. What means they possess of COT ae 
Proaching danger to one another is of course 4 
