Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-11
GEOLOGICAL NOTES.

Professor T. ID. cope Is contributing to
the american Naturalist 4 series of articles
upon the " Evolution of the Vertebrate,
| Progressive and Retrogressive." Armed
| with a greater knowledge of the peculiar
| tiles of extinct forms than is perhaps pos
sessed by any other living man, land with
wide knowledge Of living forms also,
Professor Cope is well suited for the task he
has undertaken, and, although he would
probably not care to indorse as proved all
he has himself advanced, his ideas are well
| worthy of consideration, and are doubtless
| to large extent true.
Dragon flies are aerial insects but their
Larvae or immature forms live in the water.
The eggs must, therefore, he either laid
under water or upon the under side of
sticks, stems Of wood etc, on or near the
surface. Observations on this point are
scarce, but j. E. Todd american Naturalist
tells how, when camped by Bear creek,
Dakota, he saw the females of one species
fold their wings backward and crawl down
the stem Of a water plant to lay their
eggs. One was seen to reappear after
about half an hour, and was seized and
towed ashore by a male Other females
were seen to fasten their eggs to the under
side Of sticks and stems OF weeds, and
another species was found depoSiting eggs
in the stems Of bulrushes and cat-tails. the
female saving hole through the skin
with her ovipositor and placing the egg in
the pith.
The mounds of the Occident ant are
placeC in the center Of a neatly Smoothed
bare spot, three to FIVE feet across, and are
often covered with coarse sand or fine
gravel, even when there is little of this
material in the surface around. Suspecting
that the ants selected materials which
would best secure their dwelling from the
wind and rain, J. T. Todd watched them.
He soon found that the excavation below
the surface and the building of the mound
are carried on by two sets Of workers-one
set continually bringing particles from
within, the other picking up particles from
the court and depcsiting them on the
mound. The coarseness Of the material
seems to be caused by the effort Of each
worker TO find as large particle as it can
conveniently carry. When particles OF
broken glass were scattered upon court
the ants quickly found them, carried them
off and dropped them on the mound
J. 4. Davis Nature, January 1st,) asserts
that limpets have Il settled home, and oc-
cupy scars III a rock, often sunk to Il con-
siderable depth. Remarked certain speci-
mems and watched their motions BY this
means he found that though marked
limpet might wander in search of food as
much as three feet from its scar while the
tide was down, ii always found It's way back
again before the rising tide reached it,
Moreover, ii always roosts with its snout
pointing in the same direction. What
sense can be used? The eyes Of limpet,
mere sensitive cups, can al most distin-
guish differences Of light intensity. Ex-
amPles deprived Of their tenlacles found
their way baca, and even repeated washing
of the track III sea water, in order to de-
stroy the scent, did not prevent their re-
turn.
There lives in Queensland curious
freshwater fish called by naturalists Cera
todus. 1t was surprise to discover it, for
It's ancestors had been found buried in the
rocks, and il had been believed thing Of
the past, This fish, like the mudish Of
the Gangea and tina; of Brazil, has both
gills and lungs, and has always been looked
upon as marking q stage in the transition
from fishes 10 batrachians (such as sala-
manders Or nevis, which have gill5 when
young and lose them when older. Mr..
Caldwell. the same naturalist who found
the eggs Of the duck-bill, has also been
examining the eggs Of ceratodus, and finds
them in many respects like those Of batra-
chians. They are about tenth Of an inch
across, arc enyeloped in jelly, and in their
early development pass through stages like
those passed through bynewts. In fishes only
part OF the egg Is directly converted into
the embryo, While in ceratodus, as in TIE
batrachans, the entire egg seginents. After
Matching, the larya goes into the mud, and
lies on It's side Ike fiat fish.