PROCEEDINGS. LVII 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. A., in a paper entitled Remarks on the 

 Patella, 'i^ described the position of this bone, which he considered 

 to be a true sesamoid, in various forms of mammals and birds. 



Mr. Romyn Hitchcock exhibited a series of specimens of Orbito- 

 lites, and made some remarks upon the results of the work of Dr. 

 William B. Carpenter, as finally set forth in Vol. A^II of the report 

 of H. M. S. " Challenger. "t 



Prof. C. V. Riley presented some Personal Reminiscences of 

 the late Dr. George Engelmann, which were supplemented by 

 remarks from Dr. George Vasey and Prof. Lester F. Ward. 



Mr. W. H. Dall read a paper On some Hydrocorallin^ from 

 Alaska and California, exhibiting four new species. '| 



Mr. Richard Rathbun exhibited a large mass of coral, Ocitlina, 

 sp., recently obtained from Key West, growing on the end of a 

 crowbar, which, when further studied, would probably yield some 

 clew as to the rate of growth of the species. 



Dr. M. G. Ellzey spoke on The Prepotency of the Male 

 Parent, giving the results of twenty-five years' experience in breed- 

 ing horses, dogs, and other kinds of live stock. The male parent 

 he believes to be prepotent in the transmission of hereditary traits, 

 except where some extraordinary circumstance intervened. In the 

 case of hybrids between the horse and the ass, a cross is always 

 marked by prepotency of the ass; and in all crosses of the two 

 species the male is always prepotent. Mr. Dall called attention to 

 the danger of drawing conclusions from observations upon the ex- 

 ternal cliaracters of the products of the union of two species. 



Dr. Leonhard Stejneger exhibited two finely mounted specimens 

 of the great Kamtschatkan sea eagle, Thalassoaetus pclagiciis ; also 

 a specimen of the bald eagle, Haliccctiis Iciicocephalus, and a speci- 

 men in immature plumage of another species, hypoleucus, supposed 

 to be new, and probably, in the adult state, entirely white under- 



* 1884. Shufeldt, Robert \V. Concerning some of the Forms Assumed 

 by the Pntella in Birds. <^Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VII, pp. 324- 

 31, 1884. 



f 1884. Hitchcock. Romyn. The Causes of Variation. <^Amer. Jour. 

 Sci. and Art, XXVIII, p. 49, 18S4. 



J Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, II, pp. 111-115, 1882-84. Extras printed 

 April 28, 1884. 



