No. 518] NOTES AND LITERATURE 



127 



a human taint. This distrust, combined with its exquisite sense of 

 smell, may explain much that looks like profound sagacity in this 

 animal. Nevertheless, this will not explain all. . . . 



And even ascribing much to mere shyness does not remove it from 

 the sphere of intelligence, though doubtless ranking it lower in that 

 department, making it a vague fear of the unknown, in place of a 

 dread of danger well comprehended. 



Space does not permit further illiist ration of the author's man- 

 ner of treatment, as illustrated in the history of the otter, fox, 

 beaver and of many of the burrowing species. It must suffice to 

 say that the amount of new information about the habits of 

 North American mammals set down in these two volumes is sur- 

 prising, with which is woven the best that has been contributed 

 by previous observers. No work of like character, it is safe to 

 say, has ever before been attempted, and doubtless many years 

 will pass before another like it is given to the public. No such 

 persistent, prying, friendly interest has before been shown by 



more difficult to fathom than those of birds or insects, owing to 

 the nocturnal habits or shyness and secretiveness of most of the 

 species, and the semi-subterranean manner of living of nearly 

 all of the smaller forms; the squirrels and some of the larger 

 herbivores are almost the only species open to every-day obser- 



J. A. Allen. 



American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York. 



DO PARTHENOGENETIC eggs of hymenoptera 

 PRODUCE ONLY MALES ? 



In view of the simple relation found to exist in the bee be- 

 tween the fertilization of the egg and the sex of the individual, 

 other hymenoptera have presented considerable difficulties. Re- 

 cent evidence indicates that unfertilized eggs of ants may 

 produce botli sexes, and some species of saw-flies produce chiefly 

 females, others chiefly males, from unfertilized eggs. Two re- 

 cent papers report the results of experiments with partheno- 

 genetic eggs of Lysiphlebus tritid, which is parasitic on the 

 grain aphis. Toxoptcra graminum. The first of these is entitled 

 "Investigations of Toxoptcra graminum and its Parasites," by 



