8 NOTES AND COMMENTS [july 



nests and eggs of the honey- eaters ; Mr. W. J. Eainbow's observations 

 on the long range of vision in spiders of the families Citigradae and 

 Attidae. But this gives a mere hint of the interest of the volume. 

 The president notes that the length of the journey often involved in a 

 visit to a meeting of the Association necessarily tells on the attendance 

 of members, and has led to the substitution of biennial for annual 

 sessions, and he counsels the establishment of local scientific societies 

 which would tend to increase the roll of working members. At the 

 same time, that the plan of meeting biennially is a success as regards 

 quality is evident from the stimulating and wholesome contents of this 

 Report. 



The Colouring Matter of Blue Coral. 



Prof. Liversidge has made a series of experiments on the blue 

 pigment of Heliopora coerulea on material obtained by the Funafuti 

 Expedition. His results are interesting, although they do not, un- 

 fortunately, throw much light upon the nature or relations of this very 

 curious pigment. He finds that " dead " coral after treatment with 

 hydrochloric acid yields a black pigment which dissolves in formic, 

 acetic, and lactic acids to form a bright blue solution. The pigment 

 is slightly soluble in absolute alcohol, but quite insoluble in ether. 

 The residue after ignition is bulky, and contains much phosphoric 

 acid, iron, lime, and magnesia. Curiously enough Prof. Liversidge 

 found that pieces of " live " coral, or coral which had been gathered 

 while growing, although of a distinct slaty blue colour, did not yield 

 blue solutions, but merely pale green ones. The pigment itself was 

 also of a pale chlorophyll green tint. The paper concludes with a list 

 of other blue or greeu colouring matters in animals. In connection 

 with these we would draw the author's attention to the asserted 

 occurrence of the mineral vivianite in the skeleton of Belonc and some 

 other forms. 



Zoology in Brazil. 



The December number of the Boletin of the Para Museum bears 

 witness to the continued energy of the zoologists and botanists 

 attached to that institution ; the greater portion of the present issue 

 being (as has so frequently been the case with its predecessors) from 

 the pen of the learned director, Dr. E. Goeldi. Perhaps the most 

 important item in the fasciculus is the article on the fishes of 

 Amazonia and the Guianas, in the course of which a number of new 

 species recently described by Mr. Boulenger are referred to. And 

 attention may here be specially directed to the exceeding excellence of 



