Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/443

Rh of seven volumes when he died, in 1813, and the eighth and ninth volumes were subsequently edited by George Ord.

Charles Lucien Bonaparte, son of Lucien Bonaparte, the second brother of Napoleon, was born in Paris in 1803, and in 1822 he married the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte and went to Philadelphia, where he joined his father-in-law. He was au ardent naturalist, and devoted himself especially to the subject of birds. He published "American Ornithology," in four volumes (1822-'33), thus continuing Wilson's great work. He added descriptions of over one hundred new species of birds discovered by himself, and which are designated in the lists of the work before us.

The present popular edition of "American Ornithology," now issued in one portly volume by Porter & Coates, is evidently based upon the elaborate publications of these two naturalists, and the work has a permanent interest, both from its early and original observations, and as representing a portion of the history of American science.

gather but little more from looking over this book than is conveyed by the title. It has a great number of mysterious symbolic pictures; and its text is of mysterious people and mysterious things. There may be wisdom in it, nevertheless.

this pamphlet Dr. De Hart briefly describes a few of the more remarkable mounds belonging to a group found near Lake Mendota, in the State of Wisconsin. Like the mounds in other parts of the State, these are mainly of two sorts, animal mounds, or those made in imitation of the forms of animate objects, and mounds of circular or oblong form, with a more or less conical or pyramidal elevation, some of which contain human and other remains. Of the former, which usually represent the animals they are meant to imitate, on an immensely extended scale, the author describes one that is shaped like a bird with wings expanded, each wing measuring about 300 feet in length; another in the form of a squirrel with a tail over 500 feet long; a third representing a deer; a fourth a bear, etc.

The largest of the circular mounds was opened by the Doctor, and found to contain, besides ashes, flints, and other débris, three human skeletons, presenting in each case types of structure characteristic of the mound-builders. The most marked of these peculiarities, viz., the flat shin-bones, and the perforation at the inferior extremity of the humerus, are discussed by the author.

forms Special Report No. 11 of the Department of Agriculture, of which at the time of its publication Professor Riley was entomologist. It opens with an introduction in which the causes that have hitherto retarded the growth of the silk industry in this country are pointed out; and the subject of profits in the different branches of the business quite fully considered. Next we have an interesting and instructive account of the natural history of the silkworm, including its diseases; followed by directions for rearing, and for the management required in order to obtain the largest returns, either in silk or eggs. The operation of reeling both by the old and the improved methods is described; and the pamphlet closes with a brief description of the food-plants of the silkworm. A glossary is appended, explaining the few technical terms the author was obliged to employ.

short paper contains a good many interesting facts about the geological relations of the diamond and the methods adopted in mining for them. They are found in