PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND 

 AFFILIATED SOCIETIES 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 486th regular meeting was held at the Cosmos Club, October 21, 

 1911, President David White in the chair, and about 60 persons present. 



The principal communication was presented by 0. P. Hay, of the 

 U. S. National Museum on The Ice Age and its Animals, illustrated by 

 lantern slides, showing maps of the areas of successive glaciation and 

 photographs of the characteristic fossils as well as restorations of the 

 mammals. 



The 487th regular meeting was held November 4, 1911, the president 

 in the chair and about 75 persons present. 



Under the heading Brief Notes and Exhibition of Specimens, W. P. 

 Hay exhibited lantern slides from photographs of living Amphioxus, 

 and of the blue crab, with egg masses. He calculated the number of 

 eggs laid by the female of this species as about 1,500,000. 



The regular communication was on Recent Biological Explorations in 

 Panama, participated in by S. E. Meek, E. A. Schwartz, E. A. Gold- 

 man, and August Busck. 



In the fall of 1910 the Smithsonian Institution perfected plans for a 

 somewhat comprehensive and thoro biological survey of the Panama 

 Canal Zone. It was realized that the solution of a number of vital 

 problems in the geographic distribution and origin of the fauna and the 

 flora of that region requires thoro field investigations in the Zone and 

 adjacent territory before the great physiographic changes occur which 

 will come with the completion of the Canal. It was therefore felt that 

 the necessary field work should be undertaken at once. With this 

 object in view Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, invited the various scientific bureaus of the government 

 to cooperate with the Institution in making such a survey. The Bureau 

 of Fisheries and the Field Museum of Natural History, having already 

 contemplated making such a study of the aquatic life of the Zone, 

 promptly joined the Smithsonian, and the entire work was carried on 

 under the general direction of that Institution. 



The Bureaus and institutions participating in the survey are as 

 follows: The Smithsonian Institution; the Field Museum of Natural 

 History; the Bureau of Fisheries; the Biological Survey; the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, and the Bureau of Entomology. 



At this meeting Dr. E. A. Schwartz and Mr. August Busck of the 

 Bureau of Entomology told of the entomological work done by the recent 



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