TEE TORT U GAS LABORATORY 



401 



or to render possible the prosecution of researches which no other 

 institutions can undertake. Indeed, the success of any research labora- 

 tory must depend upon the efficiency of the training which its investi- 

 gators have received at institutions of both instruction and research, 

 such as the laboratories at Woods Hole, Cold Spring Harbor, Bermuda, 

 South Harpswell and St. Andrews. 



At Tortugas some of the ablest investigators of our country have 

 been directing their attention not only to the systematic study of the 

 rich reef fauna of the region, but mainly to problems in physiology, 

 ecology, regeneration and embryology. We shall have space for a re- 

 view of the results of a few only of these studies, selecting such as may 

 be of the widest general interest. 



Throughout the autumn and winter one of the most desolate of the 

 Tortugas Islands is the small uninhabited Bird Key; but suddenly on 

 a day late in April or early in May a cloud of sea-gulls gathers from far 

 and near, and soon more than 25,000 birds are screaming over the is- 

 land, struggling for nesting space. 



Undeterred by the roasting heat of desert sands, the air above which 

 rises to at least 120° F. on every sunny summer's day, or by the cease- 

 less shrieks of sea-gulls, Professor Watson, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, lived nearly three months upon Bird Key. He reared the young 

 birds and found that they could learn their way through a maze to their 

 food. The adults could also learn to overcome obstacles in seeking to 

 sit upon the eggs. The noddy gull builds its nest in bushes and while 



Pig. 4. The Fleet of the Tortugas Laboratory. 

 The Phyaalia, Sea Horse and launches. 



