ZOOLOGY. 



Flight of Vanessa Antiopa, Feb. 16th. — This afternoon one 

 of our visitors saw a butterfly fluttering in the air. In a few 

 moments it lit on the snow, and he, going to it, found it chilled, 

 and brought it to me. The specimen answers in appearance 

 to Vanessa Antiopa. The insect has been flying about a warm 

 room this afternoon. 



Considering the intensity of the cold for the past six weeks, 

 and the fact that even to-day the thermometer has not marked 

 26°, and not a suspicion of dripping even on the south side of the 

 house, I have considered the incident worth relating to you. — 

 E. Lewis Sturtevant, So. Fmmiifjhnn, J/cs.s., Feb. 16, 1875. 



Snails in Winter. — S. Clessin describes the habits of snails 

 during the winter, their burying in the ground, often in crowds, the 

 formation of the epiphragm, the interruption in the growth of the 

 shell, etc. He thinks that slugs and fresh-water snails are less 

 sensible to the influence of season, hiding themselves later in au- 

 tumn, and coming forth earlier in spring than Helix and that 

 young specimens are less sensible than older ones. C. B. Ver- 

 Kegensb (xxxi, pp. 114-130).— Zoological Record for 1872. 



Filaria. in the House Fly. — Prof. Leidy has recently found 

 that the common house fly is afflicted by a thread worm, about a 

 line in length, which takes up its abode in the proboscis of the 

 fly. From one to three worms occurred in about one fly in five. 

 This parasite was first discovered in the house fly of India, by 

 C arte r, who described it under the name of Filaria muscat, and 

 suggested that it might be the source of the Guinea-worm in man. 



GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



The Musk Sheep fossil in Silesia.— According to Ilerr F. 

 Romer, of Breslau, the skull of the musk sheep (Ocibos moscha- 

 tus), the most Arctic herbivorous mammal, lias been detected 

 among fossils from the Pleistocene loams of Silesia. The discov- 

 ery is of some interest, in consequence of the limited occurrence 



\ielded its remains. — Academy. 



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