412 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
inches a particular kind of c scale-back ’ (a kind of worm), and noticed, 
firstly, how eagerly it seized it, then tested it in its pharyngeal region, and 
soon ejected it, never again taking that species into its mouth, they would 
be slow to deny that fishes, and even very young fishes, have a memory . ,r 
A number of very suggestive cases are given, and the author concludes 
“ with regard to the absence of cortex of the brain in fishes, this is 
probably only a question of degree — easily understood by referring to 
the descriptions and figures of the brain in the salmon and the wolf- 
fish. Besides, who has proved that the function of memory depends on 
the brain-cortex of the human subj ect ? I have seen many a curious case 
in the pathological room, the history of which would not have led us 
to this conclusion.” 
Coloration of Birds.* * * § — Herr Hermann Meerwarth has studied the 
tail quills of certain Brazilian birds of prey, in connection with the 
vexed questions of colour change without moult and the phylogeny of 
markings. Observations on a living specimen of Heterospizias meri- 
dionalis in captivity convinced him that certain colour changes, especially 
the breaking up of cross-stripes into spots, do occur without moult. 
Further, a comparison with the corresponding feathers in Urubitinga 
zonura leads him to believe that similar changes without moult occur 
in this form, and produce the irregularity of marking already described 
in young specimens. The author does not seem to have been aware of 
Schenkling’s f recent paper, and does not therefore touch upon the diffi- 
culties raised in it. 
As to the evolution of markings, the author believes that cross- 
stripes are the most primitive ; that, alike in the phylogeny and ontogeny 
of the forms discussed, these break up into spots which ultimately 
arrange themselves in longitudinal rows. A final change gives rise to 
a feather with pigment arranged in three or four zones. The changes 
take place first in the central rectrices and later in the lateral ones ; they 
occur more rapidly in the male than in the female ; but the tail feathers 
are not necessarily the first in the body to undergo these changes.. 
The author discusses the relation of these facts to Eimer’s “ laws.” 
Hepatic Pigments. :f — MM. A. Dastre and N. Floresco have studied 
the hepatic pigments, as distinguished from the biliary pigments of 
Vertebrates. They divide the bodies into two sets according to their 
solubility : — (a) the aqueous pigments (soluble in water after “ papainic ” 
digestion, &c.) of which the most important is ferrine ; and (6) the 
chloroformic pigments (soluble in chloroform) of which they name one= 
cholechrome, intermediate between lipochromes and biliary pigments. 
Adaptations of Respiratory Organs in Aquatic Mammals.§ — Herr 
0. Muller has made a detailed study of this problem. With increasing 
adaptation to life in water, the ventral bronchi are more and more 
shunted backwards, and their place is taken anteriorly by the dorsal 
bronchi, which increase in number. The change in the form of tbe 
thorax also brings about a reduction of one of the lobes of the lungs — 
* Zool. Jalirb., xi. (1898) pp. 65-88 (3 pis.), 
t Biol. Centralbl., xvii. (1897) pp. 65-79. 
j Comptes Rendus, cxxvi. (1898) pp. 1221-3. 
§ Jonaische Zeitschr. Naturwiss., xxxii. (1898) pp. 95-230 (4 pis.)- 
