986 



DR. W. T. CALMAN ON THE BRINE SHRIMP. 



the Common Moorlien, these birds using them in climbing 

 amongst reeds and herbage. 



Text-fi^. 200. 



Wing of young Forphyrio melanonotus with well-developed claw. 



Mr, J. Lewis Bonhote, M.A., F.Z.S., exhibited a pair of 

 Egyptian Desert- Mice [Meriones C7'assus) which showed a darker 

 and more i-ufous colour than normal examples. This coloration 

 had been artificially produced by keeping the animals in a moist 

 atmosphere at 80° Fahr. They were first exposed to these con- 

 ditions on the 7th of April, and a month later were conspicuously 

 darker ; after that the darkening process still continued, but more 

 slowly, and they appeared for some time previous to being killed 

 to have reached a limit to their darkening. During this same 

 period, and owing to the fine weather, other examples had been in 

 a temperature that rose during the day to 90°, falling at night to 

 60° or even lower. This had apparently produced no change in 

 their coloration. The change in the examples exhibited was 

 therefore probably due rather to the humidity than to the temper- 

 ature of the atmosphere. Mr. Bonhote was therefore inclined to 

 think that the pale colour of desert animals was dvie to the 

 extreme dryness of the atmosphere rather than to any special 

 assimilation of their colour to the surroundings. 



Dr. W. T. Calman, F.Z.S., exhibited a number of living 

 specimens of the Brine Shrimp {Artemia salina), bred from 

 Tidman's Sea Salt. The Brine Shrimp, a small Crustacean 



