88 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VL, No. 130. 



recent scorpions this segment is not visible 

 in any position (at least, not in any which I 

 have examined), there being only five ventral 

 plates of the abdomen ; while here there are six 

 in sight, which are almost exactly coincident 

 with the dorsals in position. Another fea- 

 ture, I feel, ought to be noticed here. In recent 

 scorpions the tail-segments seem as if reversed 

 in position ; that is, when straightened out on 

 a plane with the abdomen, what 

 would appear as the dorsal sur- 

 face is below, and the bend of 

 the articulations is upward. 

 In this one it has been ex- 

 actly the reverse ; the undei 

 surface, as shown on the 

 specimen, presenting 

 only the two longitudi- 

 nal ridges, and show 

 ing also the sinus at 

 the posterior part 

 of the segments oc- 

 cupied by the chiti- 

 nous portion of the 

 joint. The Swedish 

 specimen would 

 also appear to pre- 

 sent this feature, as 

 the upper surface, as 

 figured on Thorell and 

 Lindstrom's plate, shows 

 the four ridges of the dorsal 

 side of the tail-segments. 

 The proportionate breadth of 

 the body would indicate the 

 American individual as a female, 

 as it is of an elongate, oval form, 

 being half as wide across the fourth 

 dorsal segment as the entire length of 

 the abdomen. 



The geological horizon to which this 

 American specimen belongs is that of the 

 water-lime group, at the extreme base of, or per- 

 haps more properly below, the lower Helderberg 

 group (equivalent to the Onondaga salt group 

 of central and western New York), and is 

 nearly the same as that from which the Swed- 

 ish specimen was obtained, probably somewhat 

 lower. The associated fossils are Eurypterus 

 remipes DeKay, Dolichopterus macrocheirus 

 Hall (only lately obtained from this locality) , 

 Pter3'gotus Osborni Hall, and Leperditia alta 

 Conrad. In other parts of the state, other 

 forms of Eurypleri are found ; also Ceratio- 

 caris, with a very few molluscan forms, — all 

 indicating a marine deposit. The fossils asso- 

 ciated with the Swedish specimen are closely 

 similar to the above in part. But many of the 



brachiopods mentioned as occurring there are 

 allied to forms occurring in beds below, while 

 others would indicate a horizon of lower Hel- 

 derberg age ; so that we may infer that the two 

 forms belong very nearly in the same position 

 geologically. 



The zoological affinities of the American 

 scorpion very closely resemble those of the 

 Swedish specimen ; and it ma}^, perhaps, be 

 classed under the same genus, Palaeophonus. 

 This, however, requires further stud}^ to deter- 

 mine. The specific relations are quite differ- 

 ent ; and I propose to designate it for the 

 present by the name Palaeophonus Os- 

 borni, after its discoA^erer. A full de- 

 scription of the specimen, with illustra- 

 tions, will shortly be given in a bulletin 

 of this museum. It is possible this 

 may have been a land-animal, like 

 b the recent scorpions, certainly 

 iX the natural inference would be 



that it was ; and the finding 

 of an undoubted stigmata in 

 one of the ventral plates 

 of the Swedish specimen 

 would certainly lend 

 strength to the supposi- 

 tion. But on this Amer- 

 ican specimen, where one 

 end of each of the ven- 

 tral plates is exposed to 

 view, the stigmata cer- 

 tainly ought to appear ; 

 but it would require so 

 great a stretch of imagina- 

 tion to see them, that I pre- 

 fer to leave them as extremely 

 doubtful. There are, however, 

 along the left side of the body, 

 at the junction of the dorsal with 

 the ventral plates, in what should 

 be the flexible chitinous membrane 

 of the four stigmatic segments, what might very 

 readil}' be interpreted as stigmatic openings(c); 

 but these are so anomalous in their position 

 that I have as yet felt uncertain of their nature, 

 and also of the terrestrial character of the 

 animal. R. P. Whitfield. 



Amer. museum natural history, 

 New-York City. 



AN EVENING IN CAMP AMONG THE 

 OMAHA S. 



We had just finished our supper in the long 

 conical shadow of the tent ; and, the dishes 

 being disposed of, we settled ourselves for the 



