T12 Notes and News. ao 
In the paper in which I first recorded the activity here specially dwelt 
upon, in the case of the Great Crested Grebe, I put forward the above 
view, in explanation of it. Now, many years afterwards, I learn that the 
late Professor Metchnikoff held the same opinion (whether in reference to 
my own notes which, so far as I know, first placed the facts upon record, or 
otherwise, I am not sure) and Haeckel’s concurrence also, I think, lies 
implicit in his work ‘The Evolution of Man,’ though he does not there 
mention — probably through not having been aware of it — the matter in 
question. I would suggest, therefore, under shelter of these names, that 
a new possible factor enters into the philosophy of nuptial or ante-nuptial 
excitatory actions in birds, and, through these, of true purposive display 
and progressive sexual selection. 
EpMuUND SELOUS. 
6 Albany Gardens, 
King’s Road, 
Richmond Survey. 
Nov. 22, 1916. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Proressor FosteER ELLENBOROUGH LASCELLES BEAL, a Fellow of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union, died suddenly at his home near Berwyn, 
Md., October 1, 1916. Professor Beal was in the 77th year of his life and 
in the 25th of service in the U. S. Biological Survey. He was born at South 
Groton, Massachusetts, January 9, 1840. His early life was spent upon a 
farm, but he was determined to get an education and was graduated from 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1872. He was professor of 
mathematics in the United States Naval Academy in 1873-4, and professor, 
in turn, of mathematics, zodlogy, and geology in the Agricultural College 
at Ames, Iowa, from 1876 to 1883. He was employed in the Biological 
Survey for six months in 1886 and began his permanent term of service in 
1892. He prepared, either wholly or in part, 24 official publications, 
besides numerous other scientific articles, and played an important part 
in building up the existing system of laws for the protection of American 
birds. A full account of the life and work of Professor Beal will be pub- 
lished in a later number of ‘The Auk.’ — W. L. M. 
