10
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
ment, for I believe it is the government of heaven. This is the kind of government that should exist in oneself as a man and as a teacher. There are statutes against burglary, horse stealing and murder, but so far as they serve as a restraining force to you, they might as well have never been written; for within your breast is a noble principle of right which keeps you from the fear of breaking such laws, or having to pay the penalty for such violation.
So the teacher who has within himself this principle of right for right's sake, and can infuse it into the hearts of his pupils, elevating them above the need for laws and penalties, is the teacher who most nearly reaches my ideal. And this government, above all others, is the one to which we should aspire.
J. L. S.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Additions to cabinets since our last report :
A lot of foreign lepidoptera containing about a hundred species new to the collections.
About two hundred coleoptera from Pennsylvania. Geococeyx is mounted and making its way through the cabinets.
The third specimen of a wild turkey from the Indian Territory can be seen in the upper natural history room.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The first number of the illustrated weekly journal, Science, backed by the best scientific men in this country will appear this month.
The descriptions of a portion of the moths collected in New Mexico by Prof. F. H. Snow, including two new genera and many new species have been published in a natural history magazine in London, England. Most of these descriptions will be produced in the proceedings of the Kansas Academy of Science.
A few facts relating to the natural history of Kansas: The hymenoptera have not been very extensively collected. In Prof. Snow's preliminary list one hundred and ninety species are given.
Prof. Snow has published a list of about three hundred species of birds taken in the State.
About two thousand species of coleoptera have been reported. Thus far no other State has published a list that equals it.
In the transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science Prof. Snow has reported about six hundred and fifty species of lepidoptera.
The fishes have not been worked up very thoroughly. Prof. Snow has reported about thirty species found in the river here at Lawrence.
Prof. Carruth has reported nearly fifteen hundred species of plants. He thinks that many of the so-called species are mere varieties.
About ninety species of reptiles and batrachians have been found within the limits of our State.
Sixty-six species of mammals have been reported to the Kansas Academy of Science by Prof. M. B. V. Knox, of Baker University, Baldwin City.
WILD TURKEYS.—The most valuable and interesting game bird in America is the wild turkey. It has become almost extinct in the eastern portion of the United States. In unsettled portions of the southern and western States and in the wilder regions watered by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, these birds are comparatively plentiful, though the time of their final extinction is probably drawing near.
Mr. Audubon speaks of the wild turkeys as irregularly migratory and gregarious; their migrations are solely with reference to food. These migrations are made on foot except when the turkeys are compelled to cross streams. On their first coming to the banks of a river they are said to make a pause of one or two days before they attempt to cross, meanwhile the old males are strutting about up and down the banks, making a loud gobbling and calling to one another as if to raise courage to a befitting point. At length they fly to the top branches of trees, and from thence take their flight over the stream. Occasionally some individuals fall into the water, when they immediately tuck their wings close to their bodies, spread their tails and by plying their legs vigorously swim to the shore.
Early in February, the love season is said to commence. The males strut pompously about, at the same time they emit from their lungs a succession of very peculiar puffs. On these occasions the males often encounter each other in desperate combats which frequently have a fatal termination, caused by furious blows inflicted on the head. When one cock-turkey has thus destroyed another, it is said to caress the dead body in an apparently sorrowful manner.
The hens are said to keep apart from the males while laying their eggs for the cock would inevitably destroy them. It is also necessary for the females while rearing their broods to avoid very carefully the old gobblers who would certainly destroy the young birds even when nearly grown.
The wild turkey belongs entirely to the new world. Two species have been described as belonging to the United States, (Meleagris gallopavo) which belongs to the eastern and middle regions, and (M. Mexicana) which inhabits Mexico and the western mountainous country. It is from this last named species that the barn-yard domesticated turkey is supposed to have been derived. A third specie (M. oxcellata), rather less in size but far more striking in appearance, has been found in Yucatan and Northern Guatamala.
MISCELLANY.
COLLEGE NOTES.
Vanderbilt has lately made a gift of $100,000 to his pet university.
The observatory of Harvard at the request of European astronomers has been made the center of astronomical information for the United States. The Smithsonian Institute has held this position heretofore.
A college has been founded at Yankton, Dakota, under the care of the Congregational Church. A fine building has been erected on spacious grounds. It opens with an attendance of sixteen.
Harvard has a female annex ; why should not Vassar have a male annex ?