These birds are rarely seen in pairs except during the mating period. I have never yet been able to discover an Ousel’s nest, but those who have made a close study of the habits of this interesting bird claim that they build their nests in the banks, burrowing for that purpose a small hole. J. Mayne Baltimore. TOBACCO. (_Nicotiana tabacum_ L.) Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society’s chief joys. The worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours. Thou art indeed the drug a gardener wants To poison vermin that infest his plants. —Cowper: Conversation, line 251. The tobacco plant is a tall herbaceous annual with large simple leaves and terminal inflorescence, belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceæ), the members of which resemble each other in that they are more or less poisonous and in that they have a disagreeable, nauseous, heavy odor. There are several species of tobacco, of which the above is the most highly valued, and they are all natives of warm countries, as southern Asia, India, South America and the West Indies. Tobacco is very extensively cultivated in nearly all warm countries, especially in the southern United States and the West Indies. The history of the cultivation and use of tobacco is shrouded in uncertainty. Some authorities affirm that it was extensively used for smoking and as snuff and cultivated on a large scale in China, many centuries before the discovery of America. Meyen, the botanist, in studying ancient Chinese sculptures noticed the same form of pipe in use at the present time. Even if this be true, and the statement is questioned by other authorities, the fact nevertheless remains that tobacco was unknown to Europeans until after the discovery of America. Columbus found that the natives of the West Indies smoked cylindrical rolls of tobacco leaves wrapped in maize leaf, to which the name “Tobako” was applied. This name was also given to the tobacco tubes used by the ancient Mexicans. That tobacco was employed since the remotest antiquity by the natives of the western continent, from South America to Canada, has been satisfactorily proven from the examination of burial mounds. In 1492 the natives of Cuba used tobacco for smoking, both as a narcotic stimulant and to drive away mosquitos, as snuff and as a medicine.