96 JouENAL OF THE MiTCHELL, SociETY [^Januavy 



into wood. Thej excavate wharf piles, 'boat timbers, etc., and 

 do very great damage. Mr. Shackel is carrying on investiga- 

 tions which have for their object the determination or inven- 

 tion of new ways for preventing these animals from entering 

 wood. 



In addition to this more general biological work the Bureau is 

 carrying on detailed work on the fishes. Considerable attention 

 has already been paid to the fishes, but the group is so im- 

 portant that the most detailed knowledge of it is desirable. 

 And so the director of the laboratory, Mr. Lewis Radcliffe, with 

 the help of a number of assistants, is constantly making col- 

 lections and observations on the group. A few years ago a book 

 on the North Carolina fishes, by Dr. H. M. Smith, now chief 

 of the Fisheries Bureau, was published by the IN^orth Carolina 

 Survey. Mr. Radoliife and others have been able to add a 

 number of forms to those already recorded. And what is of 

 even greater importance, they are learning more about the life 

 histories of the Beaufort fishes. Dr. Albert Kunz, of the Uni- 

 versity of Iowa, studied the development of a number of the 

 more abundant forms. This is a field not only of scientific but 

 of great economic interest and importance. The eggs of these 

 fish are very small and float at the surface of the water, and may 

 be captured in fine meshed nets. With the aid of an accom- 

 plished artist, Mrs. Decker, of Washington, D. C, some very 

 beautiful figures of the stages in the development of these 

 forms have been made. 



Mr. H. F. Taylor, of the Tarboro City Schools, was engaged 

 in work on fish scales to discover if the age of fishes might be 

 determined thereby. 



Besides a general study of a number of forms, my own work 

 was mostly in following the phenomena of reduction in the 

 medusae of Pennaria. Every evening just at dusk during the 

 breeding season the mature medusae of Pennaria come off from 

 the colony. They swim about in the water for a time casting 

 the eggs and sperm, and then they settle down to the bottom 

 and begin to degenerate. In this process of reduction the 

 medusa? pass through some interesting stages which it was my 

 purpose to follow. The work has not yet been completed. 



