Dear Sir:

Professor J. Wyman, of Cambridge, has requested me to send you a copy of a short paper which I read at a meeting of the Essex Institute Oct. 1863, on the habits of some of our species of Humble Bees (Bombus), thinking that you might be interested in my observations on the formation of the cells in the nest of Bombus.¹ I, therefore, take the liberty of mailing a copy of the paper to you. You will notice on reading the paper that I state that the larvæ make the cells & not the old bees.² I have examined so many nests of the several species of Bombus during the last 3 years that I feel confident I have made no mistake in regard to this point.

You will, I think, be interested in D^r. Packards account of the “Humble Bees & their Parasites” sent under the same cover with my “Notes &c”³

I shall soon publish an account of a singular specimen of an Eel which was found in a well. This eel, which is our common species Anguilla bostoniensis, is of most singular shape. Having the head much shortened & broader than is normal, & with the eyes & pectoral fins very much developed.⁴ The enclosed rough sketch will give you an idea of the shape of the head.⁵ The rest of the specimen is normal. The well in which the eel was found is situated nearly a mile from either salt or fresh water.⁶ How the eel got into the well & what caused it to be so singularly formed I will not undertake to say.

I am, sir, | very respectfully, | your ob’t. sv’t, | F. W. Putnam, | Supt. E.I.