356 NATURAL SCIENCE [May 



We also leani from La Feuille that Mr Lennier, Director of tlie Havre 

 Museum, intends to exliibit in the galleries of the second storey, which have 

 recently been furnished, the ethnographical collections made by D'Entrecasteaux, 

 to v.'hich he will add numerous specimens of similar character already possessed 

 by the museum. He is only waiting for money enough to buy glass cases. 



The City of New York undertook to provide the New York Zoological 

 Society with a site for a zoological garden on the condition that the Society raised 

 the sum of $250,000 for buildings and collections, of which sum $100,000 had to 

 be obtained before the 24th of Marcli last. This sum having lieen obtained, chietiy 

 by means of large subscriptions from millionaires of the city, the Society can 

 now take possession of the site. 



We learn from Science that Prof. Nils E. Hansen, Professor of Horticulture at 

 Brookings, South Dakota, who was despatched by Secretary Wilson of the Agri- 

 cultural Department of the United States, to secure new, rare, and valuabli! 

 seeds, has returned from a journey through Eastern Kussia, Trans-Caucasia, 

 Russian Turkestan, Western China, and Siberia, having obtained about three car- 

 loads of seeds, which will be distributed to State experiment stations and others, 

 chiefly for use in the arid regions. 



The following lectures, with lantern illustrations, are being delivered in tlie 

 Whitechapel Museum :— On Tuesday, April 12th, at 8 p.m., " The Horse and Dog 

 and their Relations and Friends," by Prof. Hobday ; Tuesday, May 10th, at 8 p.m., 

 " ButterEies," by Prof. W. F. R. Welldon ; on Tuesday, June 7th, at 8 p.m., "A 

 Piece of Wood," by Prof. Marshall Ward. Admission free by ticket, to be 

 obtained in the Museum and Lending Library. The Museum is open to the 

 public daily from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sundays included, and on Saturdays from 

 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. 



There has for some time been forming in New York what is termed a 

 Scientific Alliance, that is to say a union of various scientific societies in the city, 

 for various purposes, the chief of which is the erection of a building in which 

 their meetings can be held. A design prepared by R. W. Gibson is published in 

 Science for March 25, and an appeal is made to the public-spirited citizens of 

 New York for financial support. Another way of promoting this excellent 

 object was a dinner held at the Hotel Savoy, on March 16, with ]\Ir C. F. Cox, 

 President of the Council of the Alliance, in the chair. 



The following have been appointed on a Select Committee of the House of 

 Commons to enquire into and report upon the administration and cost of the 

 Museums of the Science and Art Department : — Lord Balcarres, Mr Bartley, Sir 

 Mancherjee Bhownaggree, Mr John Burns, Mr Daly, Dr Farquharson, Sir John 

 Gorst, Mr Ernest Gray, Sir Henry Howorth, Mr Humphreys-Owen, Mr Kendrick, 

 Mr Platt-Higgins, Sir Francis Powell, Mr Woodall, and Mr Yoxall. The de- 

 lil)erations of this Committee's predecessor have had some effect, for the Govern- 

 ment intends at last to complete the buildings at South Kensington, and are 

 asking for that purpose a sum of £800,000. 



We learn from Nature Notes that under the title of Audubon Societies there 

 have been formed in the United States no less than fourteen bodies, the main 

 purpose of which is to discourage buying and wearing for ornamental purposes 

 the feathers of any wild bird. The Massachusetts States Legislature has passed 

 a bill prohibiting the wearing of song and insectivorous birds on women's hats, 

 and the law is being vigorously enforced in the city of Boston. An oflicial of the 

 Boston Natural History Society Museum has published a list of no less than 

 forty sjjecies of birds which he saw stuck on women's heads. The latest victim 

 of fashion is said by the same official to be the grebe. The great crested grebe 



