8 NOTES AND COMMENTS [sULY 
nests and eggs of the honey-eaters; Mr. W. J. Rainbow’s observations 
on the long range of vision in spiders of the families Citigradae and 
Attidae. But this gives a mere hint of the interest of the volume. 
The president notes that the length of the journey often involved in a 
visit to a meeting of the Association necessarily tells on the attendance 
of members, and has led to the substitution of biennial for annual 
sessions, and he counsels the establishment of local scientific societies 
which would tend to increase the roll of working members. At the 
same time, that the plan of meeting biennially is a success as regards 
quality is evident from the stimulating and wholesome contents of this 
Report. 
The Colouring Matter of Blue Coral. 
Pror. LiverstipGE has made a series of experiments on the blue 
pigment of Heliopora coerulea on material obtained by the Funafuti 
Expedition. His results are interesting, although they do not, un- 
fortunately, throw much light upon the nature or relations of this very 
curious pigment. He finds that “dead” coral after treatment with 
hydrochloric acid yields a black pigment which dissolves in formic, 
acetic, and lactic acids to form a bright blue solution. The pigment 
is slightly soluble in absolute alcohol, but quite insoluble in ether. 
The residue after ignition is bulky, and contains much phosphoric 
acid, iron, lime, and magnesia. Curiously enough Prof. Liversidge 
found that pieces of “live” coral, or coral which had been gathered 
while growing, although of a distinct slaty blue colour, did not yield 
blue solutions, but merely pale green ones. The pigment itself was 
also of a pale chlorophyll green tint. The paper concludes with a list 
of other blue or green colouring matters in animals. In connection 
with these we would draw the author’s attention to the asserted 
occurrence of the mineral vivianite in the skeleton of Belone and some 
other forms. 
Zoology in Brazil. 
THe December number of the Boletin of the Para Museum bears 
witness to the continued energy of the zoologists and _ botanists 
attached to that institution ; the greater portion of the present issue 
being (as has so frequently been the case with its predecessors) from 
the pen of the learned director, Dr. E. Goeldi. Perhaps the most 
important item in the fasciculus is the article on the fishes of 
Amazonia and the Guianas, in the course of which a number of new 
species recently described by Mr. Boulenger are referred to. And 
attention may here be specially directed to the exceeding excellence of 
