de;partment of marine biology. • 123 



is rearing coral polyps from the planula, and has 203 coral heads, composed 

 of 18 species, under observation to determine their rate of growth. His three 

 years' study of the growth-rate of reef corals has already led to the only 

 authoritative conclusions upon this interesting subject, but he intends to de- 

 vote many more years to the study of this and allied problems of the life of 

 corals before publishing his final results. He presents in connection with this 

 report a summary of his results to date, and this should be read by all who 

 desire information upon this complex subject. 



Prof. John B. Watson resumed his studies of the noddies and sooty terns 

 on Bird Key, Tortugas. He caused the birds to be taken from their nests 

 and carried to Mobile, Galveston, New York, and off Barnegat, New Jersey, 

 but none of these birds returned to their nests on Bird Key. His experi- 

 ments, however, suggested that individual isolation of the birds might prove 

 more favorable for the experiment, and it will be remembered that in his 

 previous trial the birds returned to Bird Key from Cape Hatteras. This year 

 2 noddies out of three returned to Bird Key from a distance of 460 miles out 

 in the Gulf of Mexico, where no sight of land and no ocean-current could 

 have guided them in their flight. 



Alfred G. Mayer confirmed the observation that the effects of ionic sodium, 

 potassium, magnesium, calcium, hydrogen, and ammonium upon the neuro- 

 muscular movements of marine invertebrates are in each case the exact oppo- 

 site of their effect upon cilia. This enables one to understand why it is that 

 the cilia of the lobes of veligers, preoral ring of trochophores, or combs of 

 ctenophores are active only when the muscles are relaxed and stop the instant 

 the muscles contract. 



The following papers based upon work performed at Tortugas, or upon 

 collections gathered there, have been published during the year : 



Henri Coutiere : The snapping shrimps ( Alpheidae) of the Dry Tortugas, Florida. 

 In Proc. U. S. National Museum, Washington, vol. 2i7y PP- 485-487. Janu- 

 ary, 1910. 



E. Newton Harvey : Membrane formation and pigment migration in sea-urchin 

 eggs as bearing on the problem of artificial parthenogenesis. In Science, 

 vol. 30, pp. 694, 696, 1909. 



Alfred G. Mayer: 



Medusae of the world. 3 volumes, 735 pp., "](> plates, 428 text figures. Publica- 

 tion No. 109, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1910. 

 The converse relation between ciliary and neuro-muscular movements. In 

 Proc. Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York, 1909, 

 No. 7, pp. 19-20. 

 The research work of the Tortugas Laboratory. In Popular Science Monthly, 



April, 1910, pp. 397-411; photographs. 

 Alexander Agassiz, 1835-1910. In Popular Science Monthly, 30 pp., 3 figs. 

 Oct., 1910. 



J. F. McClendon : Electrolytic experiments, showing increase of permeability of 

 eggs to ions at the beginning of development. In Science, New York, vol. 

 32, pp. 122-124. July. 1910. 



Henry A. Pilsbury: Stomatolepas, a barnacle commensal in the throat of the log- 

 gerhead turtle. In American Naturalist, vol. 44, pp. 304-306, i figure. 1910. 



Charles R. Stockard : The influence of regenerating tissue on the animal body. In 

 Archiv fiir Entwick.-Mech. der Organismen, Bd. 29, Heft i, pp. 24-32, 3 figs. 



David H. Tennent : The dominance of maternal or of paternal characters in 

 echinoderm hybrids. In Archiv fiir Entwick.-Mech. der Organismen, Bd. 

 29, Heft I, pp. 1-14, 2 figs. 



