I N A series of transplantation experiments, reported earlier (Rawles i940b), in which the embryonic coelom of the White Leghorn fowl was used with considerable success as a site for testing the pigment-forming potency of various portions of mouse embryos of a potentially pigmented (black) strain, evidence was obtained which suggested that the migratory pigment-forming cells, the melanophores, take their origin from the neural crest, as in other vertebrates, e.g., amphibians and birds.The results of grafting a variety of embryonic mouse tissues, such as skin ectoderm plus the underlying mesoderm, somites with and without the adjacent neural tube, limb buds and prospective limb buds, from various body levels, showed that between 81/2 and I2 days of gestation the capacity of the grafted embryonic tissue to produce melanophores spreads rather rapidly in both an anteroposterior and a mediolateral direction. It was found, for example, that grafts of skin ectoderm and mesoderm from somites of the anterior-trunk levels, including the level of the forelimb, of embryos of approximately io days gestation age, produced hairs fully pigmented (black), while similar grafts farther posteriorly, i.e., at the hind-limb level, produced only unpigmented (white) hairs. Later, by the IIth day, grafts from all body levels, including the posterior-limb level, produced hairs fully pigmented. 'All the illustrations were prepared by my husband, Mr. John Spurbeck. It is with deep appreciation that I acknowledge my indebtedness to him.