262 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 11 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



619th meeting 



The 619th meeting of the Biological Society of Washington was held 

 in the lecture hall of the Cosmos Club at 8.00 p.m., January 22, 1921, with 

 President N. HoLLisTER in the chair, and 112 persons present. Upon rec- 

 ommendation of the Council, Mr. Arthur J. Poole and Mrs. Marion 

 G. Brown were elected to membership. 



Informal communications 



Dr. Paul Bartsch stated that the Hiraci collection of Japanese and Pacific 

 molluscs had been given to the U. S. National Museum. This with other 

 large collections makes the collection of molluscs in the National Museum 

 the largest in the world. Dr. Bartsch also stated that a mocking bird was 

 spending a third winter in his yard. It seemed to be the supply of water 

 which is most appreciated. 



Dr. R. W. vShufeldT exhibited a file fish, part of a collection from Argen- 

 tina, with an apparently abnormal file, it being double. 



Dr. T. S. Palmer, referring to the height at which birds fly, stated that 

 W. E. D. Scott at Princeton, and Dr. Chapman telescopically observing 

 birds crossing the disk of the sun, estimated their height at 10,000 feet. Photo- 

 graphs of geese crossing the sun's disk yielded an estimate of 29,000 feet 

 or about 5.5 miles. Direct observation from aeroplane has been made up 

 to 10,000 feet. 



Dr. H. M. Smith made the first public announcement of the taking of the 

 large forked-tailed swift, Microperus pacificus (Latham), upon the North 

 American Continent. The capture was made by Mr. G. D. Hanma of 

 the Bureau of Fisheries in the Pribiloff Islands. 



Mr. A. H. Howell stated that the crow roost at Laurel, Maryland, oc- 

 cupied for some ten years, has been abandoned for some other place farther 

 north. Dr. L. O. Howard conveyed to the Society the greetings of former 

 President Dr. F. A. Lucas, who was recently in the city. 



Regular program 



The speakers were introduced by Dr. J. C. Merriam, President of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



L. H. Miller, of the University of California: A^^^/za/^ beds of Rancho 

 La Brea. ^ 



The asphalt beds, small and few in number, lie a few miles north of Los 

 Angeles. The asphalt has varied in viscosity from time to time, and has 

 been in a more or less vertical circulation. vSince Pleistocene times the beds 

 have served as a constantly baited trap for all kinds of animals, and have 

 gathered a characteristic fauna from that region in great numbers. Re- 

 ferring principally to the birds. Dr. Miller said that, local as the deposits 

 are, their richness and completeness threw light upon several large biological 

 problems. (1) Questions of phylogeny. fhe deposits at Rancho La Brea 

 show a very plastic condition of the genus Haliaetiis in the Pleistocene. Many 

 forms of bald eagles, some larger and some smaller than those now existing. 



