10
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
A-HUNTING FLOWERS. (Rondeau.)
(Rondeau.)
A-hunting flowers one day went we,
Myself, Smith, Jones, and maidens three:
All armed with knives, portfolios tight,
To wander far o'er prairies bright;
We promised to ourselves much glee
While hunting flowers.
For others told us of the free Wide lands; how that no other spree Could e'er so please the joyous wight. As hunting flowers.
But Smith and maidens twain of three In puddles fell; and to the knee I stuck in mud. We kept from sight. Nor entered town 'til fell the night; "No more we'll go," and chorused we, "A-hunting flowers."
FRESH.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Additions to cabinets in the department of Natural History since our last report.
One box of coleoptera from Florida and Arizona containing about twenty species, new to the collection.
Fossil fern leaves from Douglas county, donated by Mr. J. G. Grant.
Cannon ball from the battlefield of Bennington, donated by Martin Gilmore of Cambridge, N. Y.
Kansas University contains the only specimen of Crotalus lepidus (a charming little rattle snake) known to naturalists. The specimen was procured by Prof. Snow in Water canon, Aug. 1881. Before this specimen was found the species was only know to exist from two heads which had been described by Mr. Kennicott about twenty-five years ago.
Diaophis regalis is the name of another snake taken by the University Expedition in New Mexico in 1881. This species was not previously known to exist in the United States.
From six o'clock April 13th to six April 15th the wind blew nine hundred and seventy miles as registered by the University anemometer.
The pilot snake which has been confined in the University since May 1882, dropped his old coat yesterday April 14th, and swallowed two birds.
The Gila Monster takes his regular rations, a fresh hen's egg every week and is getting rather saucy as the warm weather approaches.
The west Natural History room is occupied every Saturday by about a dozen members of the Zoology class, mostly young ladies, who are very industriously and enthusiastically working out the labyrinthine mysteries of taxidermy. This study is especially designed to cultivate habits of observation. The various positions and attitudes which animals assume when free in the woods and fields, must be well studied by those who hope for any success in mounting specimens.
The Botany class numbering about ninety members in all has commenced laboratory work. Students are required to make careful anatomical and microscopic examinations of the plants studied. At least sixty written descriptions and classifications of plants examined are required of each student. Also a collection must be handed to Prof. Snow for inspection at the close of the term.
CANNIBALISM IN NEW ENGLAND:-Mr. Haynes has discovered evidences of this horrid custom on the coast of Maine. The shell-heaps of Mount Desert and vacinity yield the evidence; and the people who practiced the eating of their fellow mortals were the ancient aborigines. The author cites other authorities as witnesses to the fact. (Proc. soc. nat. his.)
Mr. Frederic W. True of the U. S. national museum at Washington writes as follows in the 1st No.of "Science:" Every man has observed that the tendency to swing the arms while walking is a most natural one. The action is rhythmical, the anterior and posterior extremities of opposite sides of the body moving in unison. It is involuntary, being performed most readily when thought is not bestowed upon it. When voluntarily suspended in the American army, it gives an air of stiffness. In view of these facts, does it not seem that the statement of Prof. Dana, that "Man stands alone among mammals in having the fore-limbs not only prehensile, but out of the inferior series, the posterior pair being the sole locomotive organs," must be somewhat modified? Have we not at least a ghost of a pre-existing junction? Does man walk by his feet and legs alone? In answer to which Mr. Joseph LeConte writes in No.8 of "Science." It seems to me I can best lay this ghost of our animal origin by drawing attention to the fact that the swinging of any part that is sufficiently free may be used for steadying the body in walking. In man the arms are used, because most moveable; but in lower animals the head is most often used. The domestic fowl moves the head back and forth alternately with the movements of its legs; the horse moves the head up and down; the cow moves the nose back and forth. Are these movements ghosts of a former real walking with the head?
NORMAL.
The problem of giving to the masses a better system of education, is one that has been considered by educators and statesmen for the last twenty years.
The census of 1880 shows us that there are nearly 6,000,000 children in the United States who are not enrolled in the public schools, and that a greater number of persons over ten years old are unable to write.
In this, the land of liberty, where every man is a sovereign, and chooses who shall represent and execute his will, it is plainly seen that the stability and character of the government depends upon the intelligence with which this sovereign performs the duties of citizenship. Yet we have a vast army of 2,000,000 voters who are unable to read the ballots which they cast. The gain of half a