NOTES. 639 
occiput. The bill is now bright red with more or less black 
about the tip. The black tip is apparent in the embryo, but the 
red does not appear till the bird is ready to fly, and then but 
faintly. Meanwhile the top of the head flattens till the angle be- 
tween it and the culmen is almost lost ; so that the longest diam- 
eter of the head is the horizontal. The neck is still long and 
slender, but in the body the main bulk is anterior between the 
shoulders, and not in the hinder part of the body where the yolk 
is absorbed, as in young birds. The breast bone gradually in- 
creases in strength and the keel assumes its large proportions by 
the time of maturity. 
Mr. J. Tingley asked if the colors could be preserved in star- 
fishes. Prof. Agassiz replied that certain shades of color were 
more evanescent than others, but in the end all would disappear. 
Specimens preserved in glycerine or alcohol would preserve their 
Colors for a short time. It was not known to what the colors were 
due; and this was true of all marine animals. ` Color, in some 
fishes examined, was found to be due to different oils accumulated 
in distinct cells, and different tints arose from the grouping of cer- 
tain cells. The Professor said further that nothing could be more 
beautiful under the microscope than these pigment cells, and 
it was easy to obtain them — only take a little piece of colored skin. 
He had forty folio colored plates of one species from the embryo, 
Where the pigment cells were few, up to older specimens where 
they were crowded one behind the other, and he had seen them in 
very many conditions, yet he had not come to the end of the story. 
The different tints were, he supposed, owing to different oxida- 
tion; at any rate the colors seemed to be different conditions of 
an identical substance. 
Ar the recent meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science held in Portland, Maine, from Wednesday, 
August 20th to Tuesday, the 26th, one hundred and fifty-seven 
Papers were entered on the general list. Abstracts were received 
_ of all but nine and were referred to the sectional committees who 
allowed most of them to be read; a number that were read, how- 
ever, were not approved by the committees for publication. This 
Careful discrimination is yearly becoming more necessary in order 
to keep up the character of the papers accepted for publication 
and to keep the limits of the volume within the means of the Asso- 
