i 882.] 
I 499 ) 
NOTES. 
H. A. Brons (“ American Naturalist ”) gives some most valuable 
notes on the habits of some of the serpents of the Western 
States. The garter snake ( Eutcenia radix) captures great num- 
bers of fishes which have been left in shallow water when the 
floods have receded. In Texas and Mexico it is not uncommon 
to catch the venomous “ cotton mouth ” ( Ancistrodon piscivorus) 
whilst fishing with hook and line. The prairie dog ( Cynomys 
ludovicianus), the rattle snake ( Crotalus confluentus) , and the 
burrowing owl, though they dwell together, do not form a happy 
family. Both the snakes and the owls destroy the young dogs, 
and the snakes make free with the eggs of the owls. Several 
snakes, Bascanium constrictor and others, swallow the eggs of 
the domestic fowl unbroken. The blowing adder ( Heterodon 
simus ) seizes the hind foot of the box turtle ( Cistudo ornata ), and 
sucks the blood from it. The author caught a snake in the adL 
The foot of the turtle was bleached, and blood was still flowing; 
two toes were missing, and had been digested from the foot. 
The notion that snakes only attack creatures which they can 
swallow must be abandoned. 
An eminent medical contemporary writes : — “ Our profession 
ought to feel flattered by its exclusion from the honour (?) of 
baronetcy. A Mr. Lawes — an estimable gentleman who deals in 
manure — has just been decorated by Her Majesty. Probably 
the next “ Gazette ” will contain the names of the proprietors of 
Thorley’s cattle food — hop bitters — and of the immortal ‘Cockle.’ 
Surely Col. Burnaby might be induced to do something with the 
Premier for his protege .” But the Mr. Lawes in question has 
fairly earned national honours by the Rothamsted experiments in 
agricultural chemistry, which but for him would never have been 
carried out. 
We regret to announce the death of Prof. Emilio Cornalia, of 
Milan, an eminent entomologist, and author of the best-known 
work on the anatomy and physiology of Bombyx Mori. 
Prof. J. Hutchinson, in a lefture delivered at the Royal College 
of Surgeons, maintains the persistency of a considerable Roman 
element in the population of England. (A day’s walk in the 
“ Back-bone of England,” e.g., to the west of Halifax, will reveal 
to the ethnologist abundant specimens of the typical Roman 
features and complexion. In view of such fadls we may calmly 
ignore the assertions of modern historians.) 
