of the live-box containing it, put an end to the observation. The Volvox did not seem disturbed by its strange occupant, but continued its stately revolutions as though they were not present.-B. WEBB, JR.

NATURAL HISTORY CALENDAR.

THE INSECTS OF JULY.-During mid-summer the bees and wasps are very busy building their nests and rearing their young. The Humble-bees, late in June and the first of this month, send out their first broods of workers, and about the middle of the month the second lot of eggs are laid, which produce the smaller-sized females and males, while those eggs laid late in the month and early in August, produce the larger-sized queens, which soon hatch. These hybernate. The habits of their peculiar parasite, Apathus, an insect which closely resembles the Humble-bee, are still unknown.

The Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile) may be seen flying about with pieces of rose-leaf, with which she builds, for a period of twenty days, her cells, often thirty in number, using for this purpose, according to Mr. F. W. Putnam's estimate,* at least one thousand pieces! The bees referred to "worked so diligently that they ruined five or six rose-bushes, not leaving a single unblighted leaf uncut, and were then forced to take the leaves of a locust tree as a substitute."

The Paper-making Wasps, of which Vespa maculata (Fig. 1), the "White-faced Wasp" is our largest

species, are now completing their nests, and feeding their young with flies. The Solitary Wasp (Odynerus albophaleratus) fills its earthen cells with minute caterpillars, which it paralyzes with its poisonous sting. A group of mud-cells, each stored with food for the single larva within, we once found concealed in a de

Fig. 1.

serted nest of the American Tent Caterpillar. Numerous species of Wood Wasps (Crabronida) are engaged in tunnelling the stems of the blackberry, the elder, and syringa, and enlarging and refitting old nail-holes, and burrowing in rotten wood, storing their cells with flies, caterpillars, aphides, and spiders, according to the habit

*See Proceedings of the Essex Institute, vol. iv. p. 105.

of each species. Eumenes fraterna, which attaches its single, large, thin-walled cell of mud to the stems of plants, is, according to Dr. T. W. Harris, known to store it with canker-worms. Pelopous, the mud-dauber, is now building its earthen cells, plastering them on old rafters and stone-walls.

The Saw-flies (Tenthredo), etc., abound in our gardens this month. The Selandria vitis attacks the vine, while Selandria rosa, the Roseslug, injures the rose. The disgusting Pear Slug-worm (S. cerasi), often live twenty to thirty on a leaf, cating the parenchyma, or softer tissues, leaving the blighted leaf. The leaves should be sprinkled with a mixture of whale-oil soap and water, in the proportion of two pounds of soap to fifteen gallons of water.

Among the Butterflies, Melitæa Ismeria, in the south, and M. Harrisii, in the north, is sometimes seen. A second brood of Colias Philodice, the common sulphur-yellow butterfly appears, and Pieris oleracea visits turnip-patches. It lays its eggs in June on the leaves, and the full-grown, dark green, hairy larva may be found in August. The last of the month a new brood of Grapta comma appears, and a second brood of the larva of Chrysophanus Americanus may be found on the sorrel.

The larvæ of Pyrrarctia isabella hatch out the first week in July, and the snuff-colored moth enters our windows at night, in company with a host of night-flying moths. These large moths, many of which are injurious to crops, are commonly thought to feed on clothes and car

Fig. 2.

pets. The true carpet and clothes
moths are minute species, which
flutter noiselessly about our apart-
ments. Their narrow, feathery wings
are edged with long silken fringes,
and almost the slightest touch kills
them.

Fig. 3.

Among Beetles, the various borers, such as the Saperda, or apple-tree borer, are now pairing, and fly in the hot sun about trees. Nearly each tree has its peculiar enemy, which drives its Fig. 4.

galleries into the trunk and branch

2), and the Cicindela hirticollis are most common. larvæ live in deep holes in sand-banks.

The grotesque

The nine-spotted Lady Bug, Coccinella novemnotata (Fig. 3, with pupa) is one of a large group of beetles, most beneficial from their habit of

feeding on the plant-lice. We figure* another enemy of the Aphides, Chrysopa, and its eggs (Fig. 4), mounted each on a long silken stalk, thus placed above the reach of harm.

Among other beneficial insects belonging to the Neuroptera, is the immense family of Libellulidæ, or Dragon-flies, of which Diplax Berenice Drury (Fig. 5), is a fine representative. The Forceps-tail, or Panorpa, P. rufescens (Fig. 6), is found in bushy fields and shrubbery. They prey on smaller insects, and the males are armed at the extremity of the body with an enormous forceps-like apparatus.-A. S. P.

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. March 19, 1867. Prof. E. D. Cope presented to the Academy a young specimen of the Whale, known as the Bahia Finner, procured near Bahia, Brazil; the length was twenty-one feet. It was shown to belong to the genus Megaptera Gray, the Hump-back Whales of sailors.

Dr. Leidy exhibited a number of plates of a forthcoming work on the extinct mammals of Nebraska and Dacota, among which was one representing an almost complete skull of an animal, which he characterized under the name of Agriocharus latifrons.

Prof. Ennis inquired whether remains of the Hippopotamus had been found in this country. Dr. Leidy replied that no evidence existed of the animal, though Mr. J. A. Conrad had at one time a tooth which he considered to have belonged to the Hippopotamus.

April 2.- Mr. Thomas Meehan presented a paper "On Diœcious Forms of Vitis vinifera L." Prof. Ennis remarked upon the differ

66

The cuts used in this article were kindly allowed to be taken from a Report on the Beneficial Insects of Massachusetts, by Mr. F. G. Sanborn, in the Massachusetts Agricultural Report for 1862.

ent ranges of temperature in the Provinces adjacent to the United States." He also spoke upon "The rise and fall of the floor of the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting geological phenomena.”

BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. March 6, 1867.- Dr. J. C. White exhibited a specimen of Guaranà, moulded into the form of the Jararàca, the most poisonous of Brazilian serpents; it was brought from Brazil by Mrs. Agassiz, and was presented to the Society by Dr. Cotting. The Guaranà is made from the seeds of the Paullinia sorbilis, which are roasted, ground, mixed with water, moulded, and dried hard in an oven. It contains a larger quantity of caffine than either tea or coffee, and resembles in appearance common chocolate; dissolved in water it is used as a refreshing drink, and as a remedy for fevers and other ailments. The Manès Indians, who manufacture it, believe it to be more efficacious when made into the form of a serpent, as in the specimen exhibited.

Dr. T. M. Brewer remarked upon the Wood-warblers of North America, a group of birds which unite in a remarkable degree the habits of the tree-creepers with those of the fly-catchers. In some species these habits are alternated as occasion seems to prompt. Some are almost entirely creepers, others almost exclusively fly-catchers. The yellow red-poll warbler is the only one of this group which is known to breed upon the ground, or to be at all terrestrial in habit, by choice; when occasion offers it can be an expert fly-catcher, but when seeking its food on the ground its motion is graceful and easy, showing that the habit is native to the bird, and not assumed by the prompting of necessity.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. Toronto, March 1, 1867.The Secretary announced that Mr. Saunders, the Curator of the London Branch, was having published for the Society a list of Canadian Coleoptera, which would include about eight hundred species. The meeting then proceeded to the examination and discussion of Canadian Sphingidæ, the subject appointed for the evening. The capture, in 1866, of Philampelus satellitia Linn., for the first time in Canada, was announced. Dr. Sangster exhibited a number of rare and beautiful specimens, and the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune an undetermined Sphinx captured at Grimsby, C. W. Prof. Hincks made some remarks upon the classification of the Sphingidæ, and insects in general, on a “quinary system."

It was resolved, that from May to August, Field Meetings be held on each second and last Saturday of the month.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

Vol. I.-AUGUST, 1867.-No. 6.

THE QUADRUPEDS OF ARIZONA.

BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A.

THE wild and primitive region which constitutes the Territory of Arizona exhibits a remarkable diversity of surface in its mountain ranges, grassy plains, and desert wastes; and its Fauna and Flora are varied in a corresponding degree. The traveller meets, at each successive day's journey, new and strange objects, which must interest him, if only through the wonder and astonishment they excite. In every department of Natural History there is ample field for observation and study; and even at this late day, opportunities for discoveries in Zoology and Botany. First in importance, as they are also in general interest to the observant traveller, are undoubtedly to be ranked the quadrupeds of the country; and so savage and unreclaimed is its condition, that they are there to be seen in what is truly a state of nature. Their habits, and even their numbers have been as yet scarcely subjected to modifying influences by contact with civilization; and he must be stolid indeed, who, under such rarely favorable circumstances, does not look about him.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the ESSEX INSTITUTE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I.

36

(281)