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of observations on The Embryology of the Lemuriana and the zoological 
affinities of those animals ; ” and he finds that the placental system differs so 
widely from that of the simiae, with which they have been supposed to pre- 
sent very close relationships, that he is of opinion the lemurs should take an 
intermediate, but wholly distinct, place between monkeys and carnivores. 
A Change of Habits in an Animal. — ^At the Academy of Sciences, Phila- 
delphia, February 18, Mr. T. C. Gentry called attention to what he con- 
sidered to be an interesting case of a change of habits which had recently 
occurred in the life of an ordinary chickaree, the Scinus hudsonius, of Pallas. 
During the early part of last autumn, his attention was called to the fact 
that the birds in a certain designated locality of Mount Airy, during the 
hours of the night, were undergoing a system of wholesale destruction, the 
work of small animals which were supposed to belong to some species of 
carnivora. Labouring under this impression, and being desirous of securing 
a specimen or two, he started for the scene of slaughter, bent upon discover- 
ing the name and character of the animal ; when within a few rods of the 
place, the almost deafening noise that greeted his ears from the tall trees 
led him to suspect that all was not right. After reaching the spot, a few 
moments of anxious waiting sufficed to reveal to him the cause of the noise 
and the origin of the sacrifice above alluded to ; for^ sitting upon a twig just 
above his head, he observed a chickaree, holding in its paw a bird which it 
had captured, and from which it was very contentedly sucking the life 
current. It is a well-established fact, he further remarked, as far as he had 
been able to verify it, that the numerous species of rodents, with but two 
exceptions at the most, subsist principally or entirely upon vegetable 
matter, especially the hard parts of plants, such as nuts, bark, and roots. 
■ This habit of imitating the propensities of the Mustelidce, he thought might 
have arisen from the habit which some squirrels possess, possibly the one 
under consideration, of sucking the eggs of birds ; the blood-sucking habit 
he assumed to be an outgrowth from the other. This adoption of another’s 
mode of life by S. hudsonius, he thought a discovery of some note, as 
usurpation of habits, leading to functional and structural changes in an 
animal’s economy, is accounted an element of no mean weight in the 
development hypothesis, according to the testimony of able writers upon 
evolution. 
The Sexes of Sphceroma. — In a recent memoir on Crustacea on the Coast 
of France, published in the ^^Annales des Sciences Naturffiles,” 5® serie, 
tome xvii. 1872-3, M. Hesse has, with considerable hesitation, advanced 
the opinion that Sphceroma is only the female of Cymodocea, and that 
Dynamene is the female of Ncesea. The hesitation of this author rests upon 
" harac^t^^^ in his possession was unsatisfactory and negative 
1 significantly remaits his ill success in raising the young of these 
anim , third mouing of the offspring of Sphceroma, which he 
de transformation, ils or, “Lorsque ces Crustaces sont parvenus a ce 
degre ^ 2 ^ forme de leur mere, c’est-a-dire celle des 
A di the abser'’^ of Dynamene and Ncesea less hesitation is ex- 
presse^ , go far as known, of the former genus from the 
American^^ ^^’^^_inot be considered as conclusive against the proposition. 
yet been obtained so far as Professor Verril knows 
