face, showed the perfect insect to have already come out of them. 

 A gray pupa I was holding in my hand suddenly burst its en- 

 velope, and in half a minute on its legs stood a fly, thus identify- 

 ing the perfect insect. * * I found the fly, mow identified, sucking 

 the nectar of flowers, especially of the pink scabious and thistle, 

 plants common in the Tn ' 



lYoad. (Later on I counted as many as 

 sixteen flies on a thistle-head.) The number of flies rapidly in- 

 creased daily until the 13th when the ground appeared pitted all 

 over with small holes from whence the parasite had issued. A few 

 pupae were then still to be found — a larva the rare exception. 

 The pupal state thus seems to be of short duration. It was very 

 interesting to watch the flies appearing above ground ; first the 

 head was pushed out ; then with repeated efforts the body fol- 

 lowed ; the whole operation was over in two or three minutes ; 

 the wings were expanded, but the colors did not brighten until 

 sometime after. Occasionally a pupa could not cast off its en- 

 velope, and came wriggling out of the ground, when it was im- 

 mediately captured by ants. Unfortunate flies that could not 

 detach the covering membrane, adhering to the abdomen, also fell 

 a prey, as indeed many of the flies that could not get on their 

 legs in time. The fly for the first time (13th June) were seen to 

 pair, but this rarely." 



' ANTHROPOLOGY. 1 



Anthropology at the American Association. — It will be 

 recollected by those who attended the Buffalo meeting of the 

 Association, that by special favor the anthropologists were allowed 

 to hold a subsection by themselves. We were there made a per- 

 manent subsection, and at Cincinnati a permanent section. It is 

 with some pride that we refer to these things, because we have 

 not moved always in flowery fields. Opposition from without, 

 no doubt has been experienced, but our chief difficulty is from 

 within. Of these, let us kindly and frankly speak. We are in 

 the freshman class of our science, but we are in danger always of 

 putting on the airs of seniors. The remedy is plain ; it is not to 

 leave the college and remain an ignoramus, but to be humble and 

 not put on the airs of a senior until such time as the faculty be- 

 stow that honor upon us. In plain words, gatherers of relics, 

 skeletons, crania, ethnological material of every kind, and the 

 data of other branches of anthropology are most necessary in 

 then- sphere, every student of this department of knowledge 

 must begin with this and never wholly abandon it, yet they are 

 not necessarily scientists, their work can hardly be called science. 

 Therefore, we shall be of all people the most unwise, if we allow 

 ourselves to rest content with the rudiments of knowledge, and 

 subject ourselves to the ridicule of truly scientific people. The 

 papers read at the association were generally of a very high order, 

 1 Edited by Professor Otis T. Mason, 1305 Q street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 



