4i6 



Notes and Ncxvs. \ July 



this want, as his various ornithological communications to various Ger- 

 man periodicals and newspapers, both in this country and in the 'Father- 

 land,' have already well shown. We wish this timely enterprise the 

 success it so well deserves. 



Besides Mr. Capen's 'Oology of New England,' noticed briefly on an 

 earlier page of the present number of 'The Auk,' we have also to note the 

 recent appearance of the second edition of Mr. Oliver Davie's 'Nests and 

 Eggs of North American Birds,' which is ''increased in size and entirely re- 

 written." It will doubtless prove a welcome hand-book of the subject. 



Parts 2 and 3 of 'Ornis,' the organ of the Permanent International 

 Ornithological Committee, edited by Drs. R. Blasius and G. von Hayek, 

 contains biological notes on some of the birds of Southeast Borneo, 

 by F. J. Grabowsky; the report on bird migration for Heligoland for 

 1884, by H. Gatke, and the report for 1883 ^"^ '^^'^ migration in Austria 

 and Hungary, by Dr. K. von Dalla-Torre and Victor Ritter v. Tschusi 

 7X\ Schmidhoffen, the latter alone compi-ising nearly 275 pages. 



At the annual meeting of the Ridgway Ornithological Club, held May 

 13, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, 

 G. Frean Morcom ; Vice-President, Ruthven Deane; Secretary and Treas- 

 urer, 11. K. Coale ; Curator and Librari;in, Geo. L. Tappan. The Club 

 was reported in a flourishing condition. 



We are authorized to state, for the information of persons desiring to 

 make exchanges of birds' skins or eggs with the National Museum, that 

 no attention can be paid to applications or propositions for exclianges in 

 which only catalogue numbers are used instead of nanus. If this could 

 be borne in mind by those desiring to make exchanges, not only with the 

 National Museum, but with other museums, much vexation and valuable 

 time would be saved curators in hunting out and translating into names 

 the numbers of the various check-lists in use to determine the species re- 

 ferred to by correspondents when using merelv check-list numliers. 



As the last pages of 'The Auk' go to press we have space to briefly note 

 an important change, just made by Congress, in the status of the work on 

 Economic Ornithology, carried on by Dr. C. Hart Merriam under the 

 Department of Agriculture. Through the influence of Senator Miller of 

 New York, not only has the sum of $10,000 been appropriated for carry- 

 ing on the work for the present year, but this important liianch of inquir^■ 

 has been separated from the Division of Entomology, and made a sepa- 

 rate division, with Dr. Merriam at its head. The scope of the work has 

 also been extended so as to include investigations concerning the food- 

 habits of mammals. The appropriation now made is for the "promotion 

 of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy; an investigation of the 

 food-habits, distribution, and migration of birds and mammals in relation 

 to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; for publishing reports thereon; 

 and for drawings and traveling and other expenses in the practical work 

 of the division." 



