154 STATEN ISLAND INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
The beetle supports three fully grown parasitic mites that also 
become active at night and run about on their host. The Cychrus 
becomes easily excited and stridulates by rubbing the last two 
segments of the abdomen against the sides of the elytra after the 
manner described by Mr. Louis Joutel in Jour. N. Y. Entom. Soe. 
Oct. 6, 1903. When disturbed on the present occasion the insect 
stridulated so that those present could hear it, and the mites 
were active as described. 
Mr. Wm. T. Davis also exhibited a male of our largest species 
of grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, which may have a wing 
expanse of as much as five inches. It is not known to breed on 
Staten Island but flies up along the coast from the south. The 
insect was found among the growth of honeysuckle in the woods 
on the northerly side of the Moravian Cemetery on Nov. 27. 
When disturbed it flew from the ground into a tree, where it was 
captured. This species has been found on the island during ten 
different years dating back as far as 1882 when three specimens 
were collected in November. It has been twice found in Decem- 
ber but may also occur in May, and it is more often met with 
near Tottenville than on the northern part of the island. 
Mr. Howard H. Cleaves showed a number of lantern slides. 
illustrations of the scenery of California and West Virginia as 
well as of the mammals and birds that he had met with in his 
travels. He also spoke of the presence of longeared owls in the 
hemlocks at the Moravian Cemetery in past years apropos of the 
finding of six of these winter visitants in the cemetery this year 
on Dec. 15 as reported by one of the members. 
The Jan. 26, 1924, meeting was held in the Public Museum. 
Mr. Carol Stryker recorded an olive-backed thrush in the 
Moravian Cemetery Jan. 26, 1924. He also exhibited some eggs 
recently laid by the snapping turtle owned by the museum. 
Mr. Wim. T. Davis offered the following memorandum: 
Walking across the golf field on my way to the Bird Club 
Cabin on the 27 of November I observed how the seeds from the 
tall tulip tree standing by the path on the edge of the field were 
