PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The Board of Managers met on March 24, 191 9. The report of 

 the special committee on distribution of the Proceedings was adopted, 

 providing for the supplying of certain libraries from the excess stock 

 on hand. 



The following persons have become members of the Academy since 

 the last report in the Journal: 



Mr. D. Dale Condit, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



Professor Ernest Fox Nichols, Yale University, New Haven, 

 Connecticut; and 2022 Columbia Road, Washington, D. C. 



Professor Elmer Ottis Wooton, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Robert B. Sosman, Corresponding Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 593d regular meeting of the Society was held in the Assembly 

 Hall of the Cosmos Club, Saturday, March 8, 1919; called to order at 

 8.00 p.m. by Vice-President Hollister; 60 persons present. 



Three informal communications were presented: 



P. Bartsch : Remarks on a purple finch which had visited the grounds 

 about his dwelling in the city for three successive seasons. This in- 

 dividual bird had peculiar manners which distinguished it from the 

 several other birds with which it was associated. He had seen it pass 

 from immature to adult plumage. 



L. O. Howard: Remarks on the spread of the European corn- 

 borer in Massachusetts and New York. 



N. Hollister: Remarks on the ovipositing of an Indian python 

 in the National Zoological Park. It is at present brooding on twelve 



eggs. 



The regular program was a symposium: What kind of characters 

 distinguish a species from a subdivision of a species. 



The discussion was opened by Prof. A. S. Hitchcock, who explained 

 that, as chairman of the committee on communications, he bad arranged 

 to have the subject discussed by the exponents of a few of the larger 



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