90 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



beetle and its allies in Mexico. He has a large report on earlier 

 investigations ready for the press. 



Dr. J. H. McGregor, of Columbia University, worked both in 

 connection with the station and the biological laboratory upon 

 inheritance in bees. 



INVESTIGATIONS ON OTHER INVERTEBRATES. 



Some Helix ncmoralis of the Virginia colony are being bred to test 

 inheritance of their variable markings. The snails are kept in 32 

 compartments out of doors. Results are not advanced enough for 

 report. We have experimented with breeding various other species 

 in captivity. 



INVESTIGATIONS UPON AQUATIC VERTEBRATES. 



Fishes afford excellent material for studies in inheritance, because 

 they produce great numbers of offspring and because even distantly 

 related forms are easily cross-fertilized. Dr. W. J. Moenkhaus, of 

 Indiana University, who has published important investigations on 

 the behavior of the germ plasm in fish hybrids, continued his work 

 on hybridization of fishes at the station in the summer of 1904. His 

 detailed report is given below. At present the station possesses 

 about 100 crosses between brown trout and albinic sports of the same 

 species. The crosses are pigmented exactly like the brown trout. 

 This material was presented to the station b\ r the New York State 

 Forest, Fish, and Game Commission. The fish were bred by Mr. 

 Grant E. Winchester at the Adirondack hatchery. We obtained 

 them through the interest of Mr. John D. Whish, secretary of the 

 commission. It appears that some albino trout suddenly appeared 

 at the Adirondack hatchery, and that they were successfully reared 

 to maturity. Some albino progeny were obtained, but these proved 

 too weak and nearly all eventually died. Meanwhile Mr. Winchester 

 had fertilized 424 eggs from the normal female with the albino male. 

 The offspring, as stated, resembled the normal fish. On April 26, 

 1904, I wrote to Mr. Whish, urging that the hybrid eggs be kept sep- 

 arate from the others, and concluding : "I predict that if these fish 

 are crossed with each other, when they become mature they will yield 

 pure albinos in 25 per cent of the offspring, and that such albinos there- 

 after intercrossed will produce nothing but albinos." To test this 

 prediction, the young hybrids are being reared partly at Saranac and 

 partly at Cold Spring Harbor. As our fish ponds are not yet ready, 

 the fish are being taken care of at the State fish hatchery, adjoining 

 our grounds, through the kindness of Mr. Charles H. Walters, super- 

 intendent, and it is proposed to breed from them the present autumn. 



