3i8 



Notes and A" - [ July 



At a meeting of the Council of the A. O. U., held in Washington, 

 April 21, the Committee on the Revision of the Nomenclature and 

 Classification of North American Birds presented its final report, which 

 was accepted, and ordered printed with as little delay as possible, 

 under the supervision of the Committee. The Report, as previously 

 stated in the pages of 'The Auk' (I, pp. 371, 372), consists of a code of 

 nomenclature! rules, adopted by the Committee for its guidance in its 

 work, and a new Check List of North American Birds. It may now be 

 announced that the first part of the report, the 'Code,' is already in type, 

 and the printing of the Check List will proceed as rapidly as practicable, 

 and the publication of the whole Report may be expected during the 

 coming autumn. 



As announced in the April number of 'The Auk' (II, p. 223), an ap- 

 propriation of $5000 was granted by the last Congress, through the 

 Department of Agriculture, in aid of the work of the Committee on Mi- 

 gration. This fund, which becomes available on July 1, is to be expended 

 through the officers of the Department of Agriculture, in behalf of 

 'Economic Ornithology,' which will not only embrace the migration and 

 distribution of our birds, but also their food habits in relation to agricul- 

 ture. In recognition of the action taken by the A. O. U. in securing the 

 appropriation, the Department of Agriculture invited the Council of the 

 A. O. U. to select a superintendent to carry on the contemplated work, 

 already so earnestly begun under the auspices of the Union. The Coun- 

 cil, at its meeting held April 21, in Washington, unanimously appointed 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Chairman of the Committee on Migration, as its 

 representative. Dr. Merriam will enter upon the duties of the position 

 July 1, having his official headquarters in the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington. As his first assistant he lias been fortunate in securing 

 the services of Dr. A. K. Fisher of Sing Sing, Superintendent of the 

 •Atlantic District," in the work of the Migration Committee. 



Mr. William Brewster returned recently from the mountain region 

 of Western North Carolina, where he spent portions of May and June 

 in ornithological exploration. Although failing to discover any 'lost 

 species' (such as Bachman's Warbler and the like), he was enabled to 

 obtain a great deal of information about the summer bird-life of this 

 interesting and hitherto ornithologically unexplored region. A detailed 

 report of Mr. Brewster's interesting discoveries may be expected in a 

 future number of 'The Auk.' 



Mr. H. B. Bailey's well-known oological collection — one of the largest 

 and finest private collections in the United States — has recently been 

 purchased bv the American Museum of Natural History, in New York 

 City, to which it has already been transferred. This collection in- 

 cludes the nests and eggs of many foreign birds, particularly European, 



