108 Notes and News. [f^'^ 



logical Survey, and calling upon Congress to amplify the work of the said 

 Bureau, was unanimously passed, and it was further resolved that the 

 secretary send a copy of the resolutions to every member of the next 

 Congress. 



Subsequently a meeting of the Directors of the Society was held, when 

 the following officers were elected to serve for one year: President, William 

 Dutcher; First Vice-president, John E. Thayer; Second Vice-president, 

 Dr. T. S. Palmer; Secretary, T. Gilbert Pearson; Treasurer, Frank M. 

 Chapman. Mr. Samuel T. Carter, Jr., was reappointed counsel for the 

 Society. 



' The President appointed the following Standing Committees : Executive 

 Committee — Dr. J. A. Allen, Dr. George Bird Grinnell, Mr. F. A. Lucas, 

 Mr. F. M. Chapman. 



Finance Committee — Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, Mr. John E. Thayer, 

 Mrs. C. Grant LaFarge, Mr. F. M. Chapman. — T. Gilbert Pearson, 

 Secretary.^ 



In the November-December issue of 'Bird-Lore' (Vol. IX, 1907, pp. 

 249-255) is an article of special interest on ' The Heath Hen, a Sketch of a 

 Bird now on the Verge of Extinction,' by George W. Field, chairman of the 

 Massachusetts Commission on Game and Fisheries. The Heath Hen " was 

 formerly distributed from Cape Ann to Virginia, and was especially abun- 

 dant in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Long Island and New 

 Jersey." It was exterminated in Massachusetts and Long Island, and 

 probably over the intervening district, by about 1840, but is known to have 

 survived in New Jersey till 1869. Since this date its last stand has been 

 on the island of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where 

 the area it inhabits has become restricted to about thirty square miles, 

 and its numbers reduced to about one hundred individuals. This article 

 is illustrated by photographs showing the home of the Heath Hen, its 

 ne.st and eggs, nd the Heath Hen Group in the American Museum of Natu- 

 ral History. 



In the same number of ' Bird-Lore' (p. 283), is a note on 'The Protection 

 of the Heath Hen,' which shows that an effort is being made to raise money 

 for the purchase of land for a reservation for it on Martha's Vineyard, 

 toward which the sum of S2338 is already pledged. It is hoped "that 

 sufficient funds may be raised to secure extensive tracts as refuges for the 

 Heath Hen, Least Tern, Upland Plover and other birds which still resort 

 to this island." Every dollar contributed for the purchase of land will 

 add, it is said, at least one acre to the proposed reservation. Contributions 

 may be forwarded to the Commissioners on Fisheries and Game, State 

 House, Boston, Mass. 



1 From Bird-Lore, Vol. IX, 1907, pp. 282, 283. 



