Scientific Memoranda. 329 



sions dealt out, in this interesting scientific tract of 8 pages, price 

 25 cents, to " one half of our naturalists, botanists, and geologists," 

 Mr. Amos Eaton comes in for a conspicuous share in the follow- 

 ing passage: — "Prof Eaton, I regret to say, has (in his Zoologi- 

 cal Text^book, Albany, 1826) noticed 33 species of unio, and alas- 

 modon of Say and Barnes, but none of my previous ones! and 

 put them all back to the old genus Mya of Linnaeus! This, as 

 well as his whole zoological book, proves that he is forty years 

 backwards in the science of zoology, as he is thirty years back- 

 wards in botany, and about twenty years in geology." Four- 

 score and ten years old in backwardness. A very reverend age, 

 truly ! 



We are glad to see the author of " Ancient History, or An- 

 nals of Kentucky," occupied in the publication of his own disco- 

 veries. We are well aware of the practice he complains of. 

 Latin and Greek compounds, now that the trick is so common, 

 are insufficient to protect the property of a naturalist. The 

 learned professor would escape this injustice, if he were to give 

 us the Indian names to his genera — he is unrivalled there. The 

 Indian names to many shell-fish obtain yet on the Atlantic coast, 

 and are in common use in some parts of Long Island. 



Circumstances attending the birth of two young Armadillos belong- 

 ing to the Zoological Society of London. — On the morning of the 

 1st February 1831, it was discovered that the female had made 

 a nest of straw, close up to the pipe that conveys' the warm wa- 

 ter round the building, and had brought forth two young, which 

 were quite blind, and measured about four inches from the head 

 to the tail. The male was immediately removed to another cage, 

 but it was supposed that he had injured one of the young ones on 

 the head before they were discovered, of which hurt it died on 

 the following morning. At that time the other young one seemed 

 to be perfectly well, and was sucking; but it also was found 

 dead on the morning of the 3d of February: it was bitten on se- 

 veral parts of the head by the mother. It is probable that the 

 injuries were inflicted by her in consequence of her young hav- 

 ing been moved about; and measures have been adopted to pre- 

 vent the recurrence of such disturbance on any future occasion. 



PhiL Mag. 



Vol. I.— 42 



