662 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XLI 



selachians and in lung fishes. It is considered to be a primitive nerve 

 belonging with the morphological tip of the bodv, which has been 

 replaced in the higher vertebrates bv the development of adjacent 



Mr. C. W. Beebe of ^ew lork exhibited bird skins to show the 

 changes in color produced bv exposing a bird to excessive humidity 

 during successive molts. 1 he spots of a wood thrush become larger 

 and darker. The breast of the white-throated sparrow becomes 

 slate-colored and the entire bird is abnormallv dark. I he feathers 

 of the Inca dove become black-edged, and the bird passes through a 

 stage resembling the normal scalv dove to a dark condition winch is 

 unknown in nature. It has been generallv recognized that birds are 

 darkest in humid n^gions and palest in and regions, thus forming 



Dr. J. A. Allien of New York showed a series of skulls of Sinaloa 

 deer collected within a radius of Iwentv-fivc miles. They presented 

 extraordinary variation m the })remaxillarv. maxillary and nasal bones, 

 ■v\ hich ^^ as not corrt h tt (h\ it h ige or st \ \ st ru s ot skulls of pe( ( iru s 

 showed variations in the orbital region believed to be due to parasitic 

 insect larvae. The skulls had not been examined when fresh so that 

 the presence of parasites was not determined. The bilateral symmetry 

 of the modihcations of the orbit led some to question their parasitic 



Prof(^s<>i H (, Wildd (t ( (MM II ( niv 1 m ( \liibittd photographs 



Embryology. — Dr. J. W.nrcii nl ilie Harvard Medical School 

 showed a series ot ei<j;liic( ii wax n idiisi niclions ot the pineal region 

 in Necturus. Lacerta. and < lirvsciiivs. In all of these forms the 

 paraphvsis develops as a mcdiaii out pocketing from the roof of the 

 brain, anterior to tlic pmcal bodv. In tiie adult Necturus the para- 

 tubules between which arc snuisoidal vessels derived Iroiii the sauittal 



