PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 539th meeting of the Biological Society of Washington was 

 held at the Cosmos Club, Saturday, April 3, 1915, with President 

 Bartsch in the chair and 65 persons present. 



On recommendation of the Council, Mr. Ben Miller was elected to 

 active membership. 



Under heading Brief Notes, L. 0. Howard called attention to a 

 wasps' nest he had lately seen which was marked by a conspicuous 

 blue streak. In making this nest the wasps had evidently made the 

 blue streaked part out of a blue building paper, instead of making 

 their pulp from the natural wood. Messrs. Bartsch and Lyon re- 

 ferred to the red-headed woodpeckers in the grounds of Freedmen's 

 Hospital, stating that a few birds had remained during the winter of 

 1914-15, though none had wintered during 1913-14. The species is 

 abundant in the hospital grounds this spring. Messrs. Bartsch 

 and Bailey commented upon the scratching of the gray squirrels in 

 the city parks, which Mr. Bailey said was due to infestation with 

 fleas from their winter boxes. Suitable insect powder placed in the 

 boxes would drive out the fleas but was not relished by the squirrels. 



The first paper on the regular program was by Dr. A. H. Wright, 

 of Cornell University. The snakes and lizards of Okefinokee Swamp. 



Seven snakes of the dry open sandy fields or pine forests of south- 

 eastern United States were absent on the Okefinokee Swamp islands. 

 None of the truly Floridan ophidians and saurians were represented. 

 Some forms occurred on the outskirts of the swamp but were wholly 

 wanting within the swamp. The 21 species of snakes and 6 lizards 

 were very variable in scutellation and coloration. Whether the re- 

 stricted cjuarters and the incessant warfare and struggle for place 

 caused the wide range of variation is not yet answerable. We had 

 expected to find fixed peculiar stable races or subspecies because of 

 the isolated nature of some of the islands, but segregation has not yet 

 placed a local stamp on any of the reptihan forms. The swamp is 

 the common source of the Atlantic coastal stream, the St. Mary's, 

 and the Gulf affluent, the Suwannee. This factor may have had its 

 influence on the turtles and possibly on the snakes and lizards. The 

 swamp does not appear to be a barrier or boundary line between two 

 decided faunal areas. It is rather a melting pot for many of the sup- 

 posed cardinal characters of distinction in snakes and lizards. 



371 



