near the anus, though which it protrudes its head, from time to time, in search of food. Thus it is not, in any way, either a parasite or a commensal, in the sense attached to these words in natural history-that is to say, it does not live at the expense of the holothurian, either consuming its substance or taking some of the food that animal has amassed for itself. Hence the earlier naturalists who studied the habits of the fish were mistaken in considering it as an example of parasitism by a vertebrate animal. The fierasfer is merely, as Professor Emery puts it, a lodger, or tenant. According to Professor Semper, of Wurtzburg, however, there is on the coast of the Philippine islands, a small fish of the genus Encheliophis, closely allied to fierasfer, which, also living in holothurians, feeds on their viscera, and is, therefore, a true parasite. -English Mechanic. HABITS OF THE MENOPOMA.-Having recently collected specimens of the common Menopoma (M. alleghaniensis) for Professor Ward's museum in Rochester, N. Y., I give some of my observations on its habits. All my specimens were caught in the Loyalhanna creek, Westmoreland Co., Pa. It is well known to those accustomed to fish in the streams of this region, from its troublesome habit of taking bait placed in the water for nobler game. When thus hooked, its vicious biting and squirming, together with the slime which its skin secretes, render it exceedingly disagreeable to handle. It is often hooked in bottom fishing for catfish. Many anglers cut the hook off, rather than extract it, and the amphibian's flat head is often rendered still flatter by a lively application of the sportsman's boot heel. In the early summer when the water is clear, Menopomæ are often to be seen on the pebbly bottom in considerable numbers. Once when fishing with some friends from off a large rock in the Loyalhanna creek, we saw quite a shoal of them moving sluggishly about among the stones on the bottom. They would quickly take our hooks baited with a piece of meat or a fish head. In one instance two large ones laid hold of the same bait and were promptly landed on the rock. In a few minutes we had a dozen. Last August I fished the same spot for them but without success. Acting on the advice of a "native" (which was to drop some bait-dead fish, &c., near certain rocks under which he insisted the "alligators" staid) I caught ten large specimens in a single morning, and ten more a few days later. Those taken were of various sizes, measuring from ten to eighteen inches in length. One taken by a friend was twenty-two inches long. Fishermen hereabouts say they have frequently caught hell-benders two feet long. They are remarkably tenacious of life. I carried my specimens six miles in a bag behind me on horseback, under a blazing hot sun, and kept them five weeks in a tub of water without a morsel to eat, and when I came to put them in alcohol they seemed almost as fresh as ever. During their confinement in the tub, two of the females deposited a large amount of spawn. This spawn was something similar to frog spawn in its general appearance, but the mass had not the dark colors of the latter. The ova were exuded in strings and were much farther apart than frog eggs. They were of a yellow color, while the glutinous mass which connected them had a grayish appearance. The spawn seemed to expand greatly by absorption of water. It lay in the tub among the animals for a week but was not disturbed by them. The Menopona, here called "alligator" and "water dog," is an exceedingly voracious animal, feeding on fish, worms, crayfish, &c. Some of those taken by me disgorged crayfish shortly after being caught. Its large mouth which literally stretches "from ear to ear," takes in almost any bait not too large to be swallowed. May it not be a sort of scavenger of the water? It inhabits the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries.-Chas. H. Townsend. THE SPARROW PEST IN AUSTRALIA.-Through the kindness of a correspondent I have received an interesting official document showing that Passer domesticus has proved not less obnoxious in Australia than in this country. It is a folio of eleven pages, being the progress-report of a commission appointed by His Excellency, Sir W. F. D. Jervois, Major-General, &c., to inquire into and report upon the" alleged injuries by sparrows" together with an analysis of correspondence and minutes of proceedings of the commissioners, published in September, 1881, at Adelaide by order of the House of Assembly. "The commissioners appointed to inquire into the alleged damages caused by sparrows to horticulture and agriculture in South Australia, and into remedial measures, and to report thereon, having proof of the evil existing in great force, and over larger districts of country, and being convinced that their suppression is urgent before another harvest and fruit season sets in, and before another nesting season (now beginning) shall swell their numbers, beg to present a progress report," &c. The analysis of correspondence on the questions of inquiry shows: 1. That the sparrow is established over an immense area in South Australia. 2. That sufferers in such area "cry for relief from sparrow depredations as if from a pest." 3. That the sparrows are increasing at an astonishing and alarming rate, their work being "done under conditions despairing to the cultivator, and under conditions that he cannot control; for the seed is taken out of the ground, the fruit-bud off the tree, the sprouting vegetable as fast as it grows, and the fruit ere it is ripe." 4. The cultivated plants attacked are apricots, cherries, figs, apples, grapes, peaches, plums, pears, nectarines, loquats, olives-wheat and barley-peas, cabbages, cauliflowers and garden seeds generally. 5. All means of defence have hitherto proved inadequate. 6. The commissioners suggest in addition to the usual means of defence, the tender of rewards for sparrows' eggs and heads; the removal of gun-licenses for the season, poisoned water in summer, sulphur fumes under roosts at night, plaster of paris mixed with oatmeal and water. "It is further declared that the united action of all property holders, including the government, is essential to effective results." The state of the case in Australia being no worse than it is in the United States, these sensible and energetic measures contrast favorably with the neglect and indifference we have shown in so practically important a matter, notwithstanding the unceasing protests of all competent judges, chiefly through our long-suffering national good-nature, partly through sickly sentiment, and in some slight degree through the ranting pseudo-zoöphily of such persons as Mr. Henry Bergh, for example.-Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. OCCURRENCE OF THE OPOSSUM IN CENTRAL NEW YORK.-Dr. W. H. Gregg of Elmira informs me that an opossum was last spring taken about 6 miles from the city, being the first specimen known to him to have occurred in that locality, which is certainly beyond the usual range of the species as commonly understood. -Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. THE CLAW ON THE INDEX" FINGER OF THE CATHARTIDE.— To the Editors of the American Naturalist. Gentlemen:-I read with much interest Dr. Shufeldt's article in your journal for November last, on the claw on the "index" of the Cathartida, to the existence of which he had previously called my attention when I had the pleasure of making his acquaintence in Washington last month. Dr.Shufeldt certainly deserves great credit for being the first to detect a structure, which has previously, so far I am aware, escaped the notice of all observers. I may add that since my return I have been able to confirm the truth of Dr. Shufeldt's statements on specimens of Cathartes aura and C. atratus in my possession. Allow me, as one perhaps more favorably situated than Dr. Shufeldt has been as regards the literature of ornithology, to call my friend's attention to Nitzsch's "Osteographische Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel," published at Leipzig in 1881. that he will find an excellent account of the claw and phalanx in question as it exists in many other birds. In The digit of the Avian manus called "index" by Professor Owen is now universally recognized by anatomists as really the pollex. Ueber das Nagelglied der Flügelfinger, besonders der Daumen." pp. 89-97. Nitzsch does not seem to have observed it in the Cathartida, but found it in Haliaëtus albicilla, Tinnunculus alaudarius and some others of the Falconida. It is very conspicuous in Pandion. In fact, the occurrence of such a claw is of very frequent occurrence in the class Aves, though by no means universal amongst them. Amongst birds in which it may be well seen, I may mention Struthio and Rhea, Cypselus, Caprimulgus, the Rallidæ and Parrida. Such a claw must not be confounded, as has been done by some writers, with the long "spurs" covered by epidermic tissues, formed by outgrowths from the metacarpal elements, of most birds as Parra, Palamedea, Plectropterus, &c. In fact, the two may, as in Parra or Plectropterus, coëxist. Believe me, yours very truly, W. A. FORBES, E S m..... S.... Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. A NEW DISTOMUM PARASITE IN THE EGG-SACKS OF APUS.-While opening the egg-sack of an Apus lucasanus from Kansas, my attention was attracted by a small cylindrical worm-like object attached to the walls of the interior of an egg-sack on the eleventh pair of feet. It is represented by the accompanying figure, which gives enlarged sketches of the side and under surface. The worm is 1 1/4 of a millemeter in length, and in thickness 10 at the thickest part of the body, which is in the region of the sucker (s). Seen sidewise the body is moderately long and slender, a little curved and flattened on the concave side. The mouth (m) is situated near the end of the body, and is much smaller than the sucker (s). The anterior end of the body is not so much pointed as the posterior; the latter is somewhat produced, the end even somewhat incurved. The animal was white in color. This fluke may be called Distomum apodis. This is the first occurrence of any parasite on the members of this family (Apodidae) FIG. 1.- Diastomum of of Phyllopods, and so far as we are aware Apus, side and ventral view; m, mouth; s, sucker. Much the first instance of the occurrence of any enlarged. parasitic worm in the Phyllopods in general. Living as it does in the ovisack, it can hardly be called an internal parasite.-A. S. Packard, Fr. ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE EGG CASES OF PLANARIANS ECTOPARASITIC ON LIMULUS.-In the January number of this journal, by a curious coincidence, Dr. Gissler contributed a note covering in part the same ground as one by myself which appeared in the same issue. I desire to make a correction in regard to the supposed air-tubes alluded to by the former as occurring at the tips of the egg-capsules. These are in fact nothing more than killed distorted protozoa of the genus Epistylis or Zoöthamnium, clusters of which I have frequently observed in the living condition on the ends of the egg-capsules in fresh material presenting almost precisely the appearance represented in Fig. 2 bc, of Gissler's note. They are present or absent according as opportunity may have been afforded for the protozoans to attach themselves, the oldest capsules and those from which the embryos had escaped, being the ones to which the Vorticellinæ had most often affixed themselves. At the time my note was written I did not think it worth while to mention the occurrence of the protozoa which are very common, the stalked forms especially. So numerous are these, in places, that to estimate their occurrence at one hundred per square inch of horizontal surface, we find the population of a square rod to be nearly four millions (more exactly 3,896,800). From what I have seen in the Chesapeake, this estimate, in many localities, would be very low, from which it may be inferred that the importance of the part played by the protozoa in the economy of the world of life is, like that of the earth-worm, not yet appreciated at its right value.-7. A. Ryder. NOTES ON SOME FRESH-WATER CRUSTACEA, TOGETHER WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO NEW SPECIES.-Palamon ohionis Smith.(Palamon ohionis. Smith, S. I., Freshwater Crustacea, U. S. 640; Forbes, S. A., Bulletin Ills. Mus. Nat. Hist., No. 1, 5.) While seining for fishes in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Miss., during the past summer, I captured numerous specimens of this species. The largest specimens were taken in the open river with a small, fine-meshed, collecting seine. In some places they occur in enormous numbers. On the 4th of July we were in Louisiana, across the river from Vicksburg, seining in some ponds formed in the making of levées along Grant's canal. At a single draw of the net we brought out not less than a half bushel of these river shrimps. Considering their size and abounding numbers, they must constitute an important part of the food of the fishes of these waters. They are captured for bait, and are used to some extent for food; and I can, from actual experience, testify that they are not to be despised by the hungry hun ter. My largest specimens agree exactly in size with those obtained by Professor Smith from the Ohio river at Cannelton, Ind. Many of the females were laden with eggs. The mandibles of this species, as in the case of many other crustaceans, are not perfectly symmetrical. The biting portions of the two mandibles are alike and tridentate. The triturating process of each is long, and stands out at right angles to the body of the mandible. That of the left mandible is truncated at nearly right angles; that of the left is quite oblique, so that a dentated edge is presented to the other mandible. Both molar surfaces are tuberculated. |