1020 The American Naturalist. (November, 
several points in the structure of the humming-bird’s tongue. This 
organ is tubular, but asit lacks any pumping apparatus it can take fluids 
only by capillary attraction. Lucas thinks it is rather an instrument for 
the capture of small insects, a view supported by the size of the salivary 
glands. Tetraprion jordani is the name of a new tree toad from 
Ecuador described ® by Dr. L. Stejneger and Mr. F. C. Test. It differs 
from all other Hylidze in the presence of palatine teeth. A recent 
paper by Barton A. Bean ” on the fishes of the Chesapeake is interesting 
from its. richness in local names, Thus, the file-fish is locally called 
fool-fish ; the flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) is the chicken halibut ; 
. the toad-fish, bull-fish ; Stromateus paru, butter-fish; the weakfish as 
trout or gray trout ; scup is maiden; the sea-bass is black will or black 
nell ; the blue-fish is tailor; the menhaden is old wife, etc. 


EMBRYOLOGY.! 
Embryology of the Sea Bass.—Dr. H. V. Wilson has published 
in the bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1889, Vol. 
IX., a contribution to the embryolgy of Serranus atrarius in particu- 
lar, and teleostean embryology in general. The paper covers sixty- 
eight pages of text, and is accompanied by twenty photo-lithographic 
plates. Dr. Wilson has given a most excellent account of the develop- 
ment of a single fish, from the egg to the time when the young fish 
hatches. To those desiring a simple and straightforward account of 
fish development, brought up to date, the present contribution will- 
meet every want. Asacontribution of original research the different 
parts are of different values. For instance, while the sections on 
gastrulation, concrescence, and the formation of the lateral line are 
valuable, and largely, more especially the last, original contributions 
to modern embryology, yet the sections dealing with the central 
nervous system, blood vessels, notochord, gill-slits, anterior body- -cavi- 
ties, etc., are by no means so fully treated, and little addition is made to 
our present knowledge. This, perhaps, is a necessity of the attempt 
to cover so large and so well worked a field ; indeed, one of the most 
prominent facts brought out in the paper is that the grounds seem so 
9 Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., XIV., p. 167, 1891. 
10 Proc, U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV., p. 83, 1891. 
1 Edited by Dr. T. H. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 




