June 6, 19(12.] 



SCIENCE. 



907 



in cutting the scarps and depositing the ma- 

 terials of the various formations are marine, 

 ■estuarian, fluviatile and possibly subaerial. 



The North Atlantic Coastal Plain under- 

 "went numerous changes in altitude while the 

 various formations were building. They are 

 "briefly as follows: 



1. Subsidence and deposition of the Lafayette. 



2. Elevation and erosion of the Lafayette. 



3. Subsidence and deposition of the Sunder- 

 land. 



4. Elevation and erosion of the Sunderland. 



5. Subsidence and deposition of the Wicomico. 



6. Elevation and erosion of the Wicomico. 



7. Subsidence and deposition of the Talbot. 



8. Elevation and erosion of the Talbot. 



9. Subsidence and deposition of the Recent. 

 The subsidence appears to be sbill in prog- 



Tess. 



F. L. Eansome, 



Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY AT WASHINGTON. ' 



The 365th regular meeting was held on 

 Saturday evening, May 17. 



Arthur H. Howell spoke on 'The Summer 

 Birds of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont,' describing 

 the fauna and flora of the region at some 

 length, and stating that the flora in particu- 

 lar was characterized by the presence of a 

 number of plants customarily found farther 

 north. The paper was illustrated with lantern, 

 slides showing characteristic features of the 

 region as well as some of the birds. 



W. W. Cooke discussed 'Bird Migration 

 Tloutes,' paying special attention to the theory 

 that in crossing considerable bodies of water 

 birds either followed along existing islands, 

 or where islands or direct land connection had 

 formerly existed. The speaker gave the re- 

 sults of long and careful observation of many 

 migratory North American birds, and showed 

 that in passing from our southern States to 

 Yucatan and Central America, or in return- 

 ing, the small birds passed directly over the 

 Gulf of Mexico where there had never been 

 land. Very few of our birds either wintered 

 in Cuba or passed through it while migrating, 

 •while the popular idea that birds passed 

 from North to South America along the 

 Windward and Leeward Islands was entirely 



incorrect. Neither, as far as could be ascer- 

 tained, did birds follow certain routes, or 

 'lanes,' in their migrations, but covered a wide 

 area. V. K. Chesnut exhibited a number of 

 slides showing various poisonous plants of the 

 west, giving their Indian names and uses. F. 

 A. Lucas showed slides of the large Claosau- 

 rus skeleton at Tale, stating that it was the 

 first complete Dinosaur skeleton mounted in 

 this country. 



F. A. Lucas. 



SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OP 

 THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



At a meeting on April 28 a paper entitled 

 'Two Experiments in Color Vision' was pre- 

 sented by Professor Eobert MacDougall, and 

 in his absence was read by title. He has found 

 (1) that the subjective intensity and satura- 

 tion of a given constant objective color in- 

 creases with the retinal area illuminated by it. 

 This increase is most marked in case of 

 green, least marked in case of red. A similar 

 phenomenon appears in the grays. The appar- 

 ent difference in brightness between a patch 

 of gray and a light or a dark background is 

 increased by enlarging the patch. (2) A 

 given area of illumination produces a stronger 

 subjective effect when this area is divided and 

 distributed over the retina than when it is 

 compact. This is perhaps because, the area 

 of irradiation is increased by distributing the 

 area of illumination. 



Professor J. E. Lough reported some experi- 

 ments on the memory of school children. He 

 had tested 682 schoolgirls ranging in age 

 from 9 to 15. The method employed was the 

 same as that used by Lobsien in a similar 

 investigation of the school children of Kiel. 

 A list of ten words was read to the pupils who 

 then wrote down as much of the list as they 

 could remember. This was repeated with new 

 classes of words until eight lists had been 

 given. These experiments show: (1) That 

 memory improves but slightly between the 

 ages 9 and 15, being 62 per cent, at 9 and 64 

 per cent, at 13 and 15. This is in sharp con- 

 trast with the results obtained by Lobsien — • 

 38 per cent, at 9 and 75 per cent, at 13. (2) 

 That the amount remembered depends upon 



