836 
barn and along the Fresno River, four had the 
under parts a dusky white sharply marked off 
from the color of the upperparts. The other 
seven had either no modification in color or 
the modification was very slight. Of four 
house mice examined at Pacific Grove, three 
showed pale reddish buff underparts and the 
other showed no modification. Two house 
mice taken at Pizmo, San Luis Obispo 
County, and about fifty taken at Tracy, San 
Joaquin County, showed no modification. I 
know of no record of this color modification 
outside of the state of California. 
Besides the modification of the color of the 
ventral surface, two specimens of house mice 
from California show the assumption of the 
dark longitudinal dorsal stripe described by 
Allen for Mus musculus jalape. One of these 
specimens is from New River, Salton Sea, 
collected by Frank Stephens, and shows a wide 
dark dorsal stripe with no modification of the 
ventral surface. Another house mouse from 
the same locality taken at the same time does 
not have any indication of the dorsal stripe. 
The other specimen of the jalape type is from 
Madera, Madera County, and in addition to a 
narrow dark dorsal stripe, has dusky white 
underparts sharply marked off from the color 
of the sides so that the color of both back and 
belly is modified. 
These instances seem to indicate that the 
house mouse is undergoing modification in 
some localities, and it may be that important 
results will be obtained by the study of the 
progress of this modification. 
Lee R. Dice 
July, 1911 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PACIFIC 
ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
THE second annual meeting of the Pacific Asso- 
ciation of Scientific Societies was held at Stanford 
University, Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6, 
1912. Hight of the eleven constituent societies 
held sessions: Technical Society of the Pacific, the 
Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of 
America, the Seismological Society of America, 
Pacifie Coast Branch of the American Historical 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 908 
Association, the Pacific Slope Association of Eco- 
nomic Entomologists, Pacific Coast Paleontological 
Society, Biological Society of the Pacific Coast 
and the California Section of the American Chem- 
ical Society. The other societies were either un- 
able to hold or not desirous of holding sessions at 
this meeting. With the association met also the 
San Francisco Section of the American Mathe- 
matical Society. 
The Astronomical Society of the Pacifie was 
elected to membership in the association. This 
makes the association represent a membership of 
over 2,000 persons. 
The officers of the executive committee elected 
for 1912-13 are Otto von Geldern, chairman; 
George D. Louderback, vice-chairman and J. N. 
Bowman, secretary-treasurer. 
Berkeley was selected as the suggested place 
for the third annual meeting in 1913; and the 
suggested time was temporarily placed in the 
spring of that year—the definite date is to be 
determined later. 
The general session of the association was held 
on Saturday evening in the chapel of the univer- 
sity. In the absence of President Jordan, Dr. 
Branner, vice-president, gave the address of wel- 
come. Director William Wallace Campbell, of the 
Lick Observatory, gave an address on ‘‘ Recent 
Studies of the Stellar System.’’ He gave the 
latest views and theories as based on the*observa- 
tions and work done at Mount Hamilton and else- 
where. Professor Ewald Fligel, of Stanford Uni- 
versity, read a paper on ‘‘Scientifie Lexicog- 
raphy,’’ wherein he traced the lexicographical 
work from the thirteenth century to the present; 
he discussed the standards that were used by the 
Grimm brothers in their work, and which formed 
the basis of all the later activity in lexicography 
and raised this subject to the rank of a science. 
Professor Andrew Cowper Lawson, of the Univer- 
sity of California, gave the last address of the 
session on ‘‘Recent Views on the Archean Rocks 
of Canada.’’ Twenty years ago he examined these 
rocks for the Canadian government. Lately his 
findings and views have been brought into ques- 
tion. Last summer he went over the field again, 
at the instance of the Canadian government, with 
the result that he is led to corroborate his former 
findings and views. 
J. N. Bowman, 
Secretary . 
BERKELEY, CAL., 
April, 1912 
