802 
grow very rapidly, as is proved by the fact 
that streak cultures showed well marked 
growth four hours after inoculation. De- 
tailed descriptions of the organisms and of 
many more experiments will be given in our 
full paper on this subject to appear in a forth- 
coming number of the Technology Quarterly. 
S. C. Prescorr, 
W. Lyman UNpDERWOop. 
BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY, MAss. INSTITUTE OF 
TECHNOLOGY. 
Boston, November 12, 1897. 
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ 
Tue Fifteenth Congress of the American 
Ornithologists’ Union convened in New 
York City, Monday evening, November 8th. 
The public sessions, lasting three days, 
were held in the library of the American 
Museum of Natural History. 
William Brewster, of Cambridge, Mass., 
was re-elected President; Dr. C. Hart Mer- 
riam and Robert Ridgway, of Washington, 
D.C., Vice Presidents; John H. Sage, of 
Portland, Conn., Secretary; William 
Dutcher, of New York City, Treasurer ; 
Charles F. Batchelder, Frank M. Chapman, 
Chas. B. Cory, Ruthven Deane, Drs. Jona- 
than Dwight, Jr., A. K. Fisher and L. 
Stejneger, members of the Council. By a 
provision of the by-laws, the ex-Presidents 
of the Union, Dr. J. A. Allen, Dr. Elliott 
Coues, and Mr. D. G. Elliot, are ew officio 
members of the Council. 
One active and eighty-eight associate 
members were elected. As a direct result 
of the Audubon Society movement, creating 
a popular interest in the study of birds, 
more women than usual were elected to as- 
sociate membership. 
An address in commemoration of Major 
Charles Emil Bendire, U.S. A., a distin- 
guished member of the Union who died 
during the past year, was prepared by Dr, 
J. C. Merrill, U.S. A., and presented by 
Mr. Elliot. Major Bendire was a well- 
UNION. 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. VI. No. 152. 
known oologist, and will always be remem- 
bered by his invaluable ‘ Life Histories of 
North American Birds.’ 
Dr. Coues exhibited the portfolio carried 
by John James Audubon in Europe and 
America, and also the original MS. of the 
first volume of his ‘Ornithological Biog- 
raphy.’ Some original bird-drawings by 
John Woodhouse Audubon were also 
shown. 
Mr. Abbott H. Thayer, the eminent por- 
trait painter, gave an out-of-door demon- 
stration of the underlying principle of pro- 
tective coloration, in continuation of his 
remarks on the subject at the previous 
meeting. Mr. Thayer showed a pair of de- 
coys with the belly part cut off, so that 
in lying on the cut-off side they represented 
crouching birds or mammals. He then re- 
peated upon them the coloring which he had 
exhibited at Cambridge upon entire decoys 
(decoys poised a few inches above the 
ground). This, he said, was to more clearly 
illustrate what he stated in his first paper 
on protective coloration, namely, that the 
normal gradation of sky’s lighting is effaced 
by the color gradation of the animal at every 
point, the median dorsal line having the 
darkest markings, so that the gradation 
toward the white of the belly begins close to 
this dorsal line. Mr. Thayer placed the two 
decoys side by side on a plank, and covered 
one of them uniformly with the same dry 
earth which he spread about it on the plank, 
so that all of its visible surface and that of 
the plank on which it lay were absolutely 
of one tint—monochrome; yet it was con- 
spicuously visible at a long distance, because 
of its normal gradation of shading from the 
sky’s light, although there was no under- 
side visible to show a culmination of shadow. 
The other decoy he painted in imitation of 
a hare’s or snipe’s gradation and so suc- 
cessfully that it became totally invisible at 
a distance of four or five yards. He ex- 
plained that the statement in his first paper 
