346 Notes. [May, 
readers will doubtless be puzzled at the three new elementary 
bodies, limestone, dust, and ashes. 
In the “ Scottish Naturalist ” for April, Col. Drummond Hay 
shows, from his own observations and those of others, that fruit 
trees apparently disbudded by the bullfinches in early spring 
yield in summer luxuriant crops of fruit, the explanation being 
that the buds removed were infecfted with vermin, which were 
thus prevented from spreading. If this view is further confirmed 
the prejudice against the bullfinch as an enemy to our orchards 
must be pronounced unfounded. 
Four species of Helix , including H. studeriana from the Sey- 
chelles, according to Vignier, bring forth living young. 
According to the researches of Dr. Brush, the milk of rumi- 
nants, when swallowed, is coagulated by the acids of the stomach 
into a hard mass. Hence calves, lambs, kids, &c., which have 
taken no food but the milk of their mothers, always chew the 
cud. Animals which do not ruminate consequently find a diffi- 
culty in digesting the milk of a ruminant species. On the other 
hand, human milk, and that of mares, asses, and other non- 
ruminant animals, coagulates into small granular or flocculent 
masses which are easily digested. Hence, as was intimated in 
the “Journal of Science” (vi., p. 24), is not a natural food for 
man, nor for any non-ruminant creature. 
According to J. Munk (“ Virchow’s Archiv.”) glycerin does not 
rank among nutritive bodies. It is completely decomposed in 
the animal system, mere traces occurring in the urine. No 
formation of phospho-glyceric or sulpho-glyceric acid was ob- 
served. 
Dr. Trouessart (“ Annales des Sciences Naturelles ”) has pub- 
lished an investigation of the geographical distribution of the 
bats in comparison with that of other land mammals. Only two 
families, the Vespertilionidae and the Emballonuridae, are com- 
mon to both continents. The Pteropodidae, Rhinolophidae, and 
Nydteridse are peculiar to the Eastern Hemisphere, and the 
Phyllostomidae to the Western. The Vespertilionidae have two 
cosmopolitan genera, Vesperugo and Vespertilio. The head- 
quarters of the Pteropodidae seem to be New Guinea. The bats 
do not belong in the neighbourhood of the Primates, but should 
rank below the Carnivora, with the InsecTivora and the Rodents. 
M. Flahault communicates to the “ Bulletin de la Societe 
Botanique de France ” a paper on some exceptional cases where 
a green colouration appears in plants without the action of light. 
He finds that the green colouring-matter (chlorophyll) found 
within opaque seeds has been formed when the enveloping mem- 
branes of the seed are still transparent. Chlorophyll can be 
preserved for a long time in the absence of light. In the embryo 
