EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
Mr. L.C. Ditmars has contributed to the 'Proceedings of the Linnæan Society of New York' a descriptive list of "The Snakes found within fifty miles of New York City." These number fifteen species, belonging to thirteen genera. Only two of them, the Copperhead Snake (Agkistrodon contortrix) and the Banded Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), are venomous, and fortunately the first is reported as of not common occurrence near the city, and the second as becoming very rare within fifty miles of the same.
A second species of Natrix, N. leberis, has been recorded by Holbrook ('North American Herpetology') as being also found in the State, and thus included by Baird in his list of Ophidia; but Mr. Ditmars has found no authentic information of its being taken in the area he has defined, and so excludes it from his list.
In connection with the recent earthquake shocks in this couutry, attention has once more been called to the premonitory warnings given by Pheasants in Japan. Lieut. C.W. Baillie, of the Meteorological Office, made some corroborative remarks to a representative of the 'Westminster Gazette' on this subject. He is reported as saying: "Japan is—or was a few years ago—very plentifully provided with Pheasants. And I have heard them many a time in a wood close by my house making a noise that always warned us of the approach of the earthquake; and the warning was was always justified within a few minutes."
Readers of this Magazine may remember that in the volume for 1896, p. 78, attention was recalled to the fact that the Pheasant in this country was incited to crow at the sound of thunder or the firing of cannon.
In the Zoological Series of the publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and in a paper written by Mr. D.G. Elliot on "Sundry Collections of Mammals," are some interesting observations made by Prof. J.B. Steere while collecting in the Philippine Islands. We extract the following:—
"The Fruit Bats of the Philippines prefer small islands for their roosts, but will take up with other isolated localities. I found one roost on Negros occupying one immense hard-wood tree standing by itself far from the forest on the plains of the western side of the island. Where they are not
