EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 237 
time it is most excellent eating. Thousands are procured from a small 
space of ground with ease, and hundreds of natives are supported in abun- 
dance and luxury by them for many weeks together. It sometimes happens 
that the flood does not occur every year, and in this case the “ eu-kod-ko ” 
lie dormant until the next, and a year ana a half would thus be passed 
below the surface. I have often seen them dug out of my garden, or in my 
wheat field, by men engaged in digging ditches for irrigation. The floods 
usually overflow the river-flats in August or September, and recede again in 
February or March.” 
** According to Nicolet, Crayfishes are found in the rivers, brooks, and 
even in the forests of southern Chile, where they live in holes in the 
ground, around the eutrance of which they construct earthworks in the 
shape of a cone nearly a foot in height. As is well known, Cambarus 
diogenes, Girard, erects similar mud towers or “chimneys” in the United 
States, and Mr. P. R. Uhler tells me that Cambarus dubius, Faxon, has the 
same habit in Western Virginia. ‘Titian R. Peale informed Girard that he 
had observed mud chimneys, altogether similar to those of C. dtogenes, 
along the Rio Magdalena in New Grenada, several hundred miles from the 
seashore. But the builders of these chimneys in New Grenada still 
remain unknown to science. In this connection it is worthy of note that 
the earliest mention of adobe towers erected at the mouth of crustacean 
burrows occurs in Molina’s work on the Natural History of Chile, p. 208.” 
We have received the Report of the Council of the Zoological Society 
of London for 1897, which proves the Society, both scientifically and 
financially, to be in a highly prosperous condition. In the Gardens at 
Regent’s Park the principal new building is the Ostrich and Crane house, 
commenced in 1896 and finished in March last year. During the past 
summer also a new glass house for reception of the Society’s collection 
of Tortoises has been built adjoining the Reptile house at a total cost of 
£464 14s. 8d., which amount, however, will ultimately be lessened by the 
sum of £150 which the Hon. Walter Rothschild, F.Z.S., who is especially 
interested in these animals, has kindly contributed towards it. The 
removal of the Tortoises into their new house, which seems in every way 
adapted for their requirements, enables the public to view them with much 
greater facility than was the case in the building formerly allotted to them 
on the other side of the Gardens. It is also of great advantage to have the 
whole of the specimens of living Reptiles and Batrachians placed under the 
Same care, and arranged in the same part of the Gardens. 
The total number of deaths of animals in the Gardens during the year 
1897 was 1196 as against 986 in 1896. ‘This increase of 210 is chiefly due 
to the large number of small Reptiles received during the year. The 
