984 General Notes. [ November, 
entered was placed upon the lower side of the feather, in the furrow, 
about two centimeters from the upper umbilicus. e insects were 
dead, and were accompanied by the empty shells of the eggs they 
had laid, with a few ova which still contained embryos. hole 
about five millimeters from the lower umbilicus was apparently 
the outlet of the larve. The interior of the soft portion of the 
feather had been devoured. It is not yet ascertained what con- 
ditions determine these devourers of feathers to seek refuge within 
the quill. Acaridæ, Syringophilus and other genera have before 
been found within the shaft, but these seem to enter by the upper 
umbilicus. Houssay has been studying the arterial system of 
the scorpion (Comptes Rendus, Aug. 2, 1886, p. 354). The great- 
est interest centers in his description of the sternal artery whic 
ensheathes the nervous cord almost exactly as it does in Limulus, 
thus affording additional evidence in favor of the view held by Van 
Beneden, Lankester and Kingsley, that the king crab is closely 
related to the spiders, Winckler having recently announced 
that he had found a heart in the Gamasid mites, and that it could 
be studied through the transparent integument of the living ani- 
mal; Kramer calls attention to the fact that he announced the 
same in the Archiv. für Naturgeschichte for 1876. Brady gives 
a list (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886) of all the known Entomostraca of 
South Australia, and adds several new species to the number. 
Beddard, in the same journal, completes his preliminary account 
of the Challenger \sopoda. Frenzel thinks the “ Mittel- 
darmdruse”’ (the so-called liver) of the Crustacea has the function 
of a digestive gland which shows in its physiological action, great 
similarity to the pancreas of the Vertebrata. ther “ fossil 
myriapod ” must go, it having been discovered that “ Trichiulus 
was based upon a fern. 
Mollusca—M. Th. Barrois gives in his thesis before the Faculty 
of Sciences of Paris an account of the foot-glands and aquiferous 
pores of the lamellibranchs.. There is great variety in the byssus- 
forming apparatus, but Cardium edule furnishes a good typica 
example. The byssus is a glandular product, and does not con- 
sist of dried or chitinized muscular fibers. C. edule has a simple 
byssus of one filament, while Lima, Pinna, and Avicula have 
many. In Arca the filaments are united into a mass, and Anomia 
has a similar mass which is encrusted with calcareous salts, sO 45 
to appear as an ossicle. M. Barrois describes the muscles of the 
byssus; the cavity of the byssus, which receives the secretion ; 
the glands of the cavity; the byssal canal; the groove, and se 
_ glands of the groove. In some species every vestige of the byssa 
_ apparatus has disappeared (Solen ensis, etc.), while other forms 
_ show a partial disappearance. The mucous glands are soa 
` scattered over the foot, but more often they are localized in the 
_ free anterior extremity; while in Lima,Pecten, and Anomia ef 
charge into a furrow. It has often been argued that the rap 
