3o8 proceedings: biological society 



Dr. T. S. Palmer commented upon the feeding of quail during the 

 inclement weather then prevailing. He stated that the Metropolitan 

 Police, the Audubon vSociety, and individuals were actively cooperating 

 in the work in a number of widely scattered places. Advantage is taken 

 of the opportunity to count the number of covies and individuals. 

 In 1 918 about 1200 quail were reported; this year, incomplete returns 

 show an increase in several precincts. 



' Dr. Hugh M. Smith stated that the Alaskan fur seal herd is rapidly 

 increasing under international protection forbidding sealing at sea, 

 and restricting killing upon land. The recent sale of one-fourth of the 

 catch of 1918, consisting of 9,100 skins, yielded $1,282,000. 



Dr. R. E. CoKER stated that a valuable mussel pearl fishery exists 

 in certain rivers of the United States, especially in the Mississippi 

 River system. The value of the fisheries is several hundred thousand 

 dollars, one-half of which is in the shells. Photographs of peculiar and 

 interesting forms of pearls from mussels were exhibited, and also photo- 

 graphs showing several stages in the metamorphosis of the Acorn 

 Barnacle. 



Dr. Paul Bartsch remarked that the feeding of quail calls attention 

 to the value of water. In the city limits birds generally have great 

 difficulty in finding water. ^Many more birds will visit drinking foun- 

 tains than feeding troughs. 



Regular Program 



C. DwiGHT ]Marsh: Some poisonous plants and their effects. (Il- 

 lustrated.) 



The number of plants which are poisonous, in the usual sense of the 

 word, is greater than commonly supposed. One published list gives 

 25,000 poisonous species. The Department of Agriculture is gathering 

 data in regard to the effect of such plants on animals. The studies are 

 chiefly in the West, where grazing animals have access to poisonous 

 plants in great numbers, and the losses reach great economic importance. 

 As a means of determining some of the causes and effects of poisonous 

 plants upon stock, there have been established field stations at suitable 

 places where chemist and pharmacologist ma}- have immediate access 

 to fresh cases, and may conduct experiments. It is not probable that 

 animals instinctively avoid poisonous plants, but that they reject 

 them on account of distasteful properties which the plants usually 

 possess. Animals will, however, eat them when pressed by hunger, 

 and sometimes develop a passion for certain of them. The data gath- 

 ered are definite, but are only preliminary to the real problem, which is 

 to prevent losses from such poisonous plants. 



Dr. Marsh exhibited lantern slides showing field stations near Denver 

 and in the Wasatch IMountains, the facilities for handling poisoned 

 animals, and the poisoned animals themselves as affected in character- 

 istic manner by different plants. A long series of poisonous plants, 

 many of them in their habitat, both eastern and western species, were 

 shown with comments. 



