Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/161

 146

shell is allowed to remain untouched for some times, as if the animal was trying to acquaint itself with new surroundings. Afler one adductor is severed, the valves open, so that the other may be easily reached.

2°. I have often seen the posterior margins of the valves sllgbUy notched, an<l the epidermis scratched, from the eSorta of the mnskrat to open the sliell.

3°. The shells are never opened by tearing away Itie hi D^l lament, although this portion is some- times injured.

i". During the winter season the shells were de- posited, ofieu many bushels, upon the edge of the ice which fringed the shores. This offered an ex- planation to me for the large quantities of dead shells which I had frequently noticed in certain localities at the bottom of Che river.

S". Wlh the muaselfl In the muskrat shell-heaps were many flat stones, gathered for the purpose of eating the algae growing upon them.

8". Among the speciea eatcu by the muskrats of the Alleghany River may be mentioned the follow- ing as of the most frequent occurrence: Unio llga- mentinus, U. pbawolus, U. gracilis. U. patulus, U. clavus. U. crassidens, U. occidena, U. ovatus. tJ. lul«olu8, U. gibbo^us, Margaritana rugosa, M. mar- ginals, and Anodonta edenlula.

CuAS. E. Be&CUKR, Atlmny. N.r.,Feb. B.

��h»re been familiar, ever alnce my boyhood, with fact that these animals live largely upon the mus* and other shell-Gsh of our rivera and creeks. It U also well known to duck-huntera, at least In this region of country, that they pick up no inconsidemble portion of their subsistence from dead and wounded birds found by them after the sportsman has aban- doned the search. Only last spring T killed a duck in this vicinity which fell out of reach and floated off. Upon recovering it within less than an hour after- wards, on the farther shore of the 'slough,' its breast bad already been eaten away by amuskrat; and It is no uncommon occurrence to surprise them at such Kpaatt. Theo, S. Case.

��fe"

��a notice of a discussion upon this subject, which teak place before the Blolt«ical society of Washing- ton in the spring of 18S4. In regard to the fact that piles of iin^roiten Unlo shells are found near muak- ral burrows, it seems to me that there can be but one expUnatioD, and that Is the suggestion made at the Biological society, that the shells are gathered by 4be niukrats, piled up, and left out of water until too irnk to keep their shells closed, when the rodent >iiiidB It an easy matter to pick out the meat.

Rali'h S. Tabb.

OuDbrldoe, Uue„ Feb. S.

��JOHN GWYN JEFFREYS. The ranks of English naturalists have met with a serious loss in the death of John Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., F.R.S,, etc., which took place suddenly his residence, Kensington, on the 24th of January.

Dr. Jeffreys was born at Swansea, Jan. 18, 180!>, and at the time of liis death, with the exception of Sir Riehard Owen, was probably the oldest British naturalist. Up to the last he waa busily engaged on the in^'e^tigation of the deep-sea dredgings of the Lightuing and Porcupine expeditions; and, only three days before the reception of the news of his death, a copy of a recent paper on the relations of the American and Eiiroi)ean inollusk faunae was received from him.

Dr. JetTrej-B was the descendant of one of the oldest families of Wales, and was unlled to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. For many j-eara, however, he had retired from practice, and had been devoted to the inveatigatiop of the natu- ral history of mollusks, especially those of the British islands, northern Europe, and the a<]- jacent seas. Ilis work on the British molhisca is the standard book of reference on that topic, and his investigations into the fauna of tite deep sea were known and a|>preciated among men of science everywhere.

Dr. Jeifreys, from a lad, had been a student of conchology, devoting liis holidays to col- lecting, and was among the earliest, most enei^etic, and persistent dredgers of the Brit- ish seas. In his earlier days he waa intimately ac^inainted with that classical band of British naturalists to whom science owes so much, and who toiled for the moat part unappreci- ated. In later years he waa equally active, and participated in the important expeditions of the Lightning, Porcupine, Valorous, etc., and was only preiented by an accident from participation in the voyage of the Challen- ger. His first important paper waa pub- lished by the Linucan society in 1828 ; and since then hardly a year has passed by with- out contributions from his pen, many of which were printed by the Royal society, of which he was for forty-five years a fellow. Tbe extent and importance of his researches can only be fully appreciated by specialists engaged in similar studies. He was president of the bio- logical section of the British association in