ing an active part in the work of the Maine Ornithological Society, which 

 he served four years as president. His death is a great loss to the Society, 

 and to the scientific interests of the State. 



Edward Augustus Samuels, well-kno\\'n as the author of an 'Orni- 

 thology and Oology of New England,' published originally in 1867, died at 

 the home of his daughter, Mrs. John A. Barton, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 

 May 27, 1908, at the age of nearly 72 years,.he ha^•ing been bom in Boston, 

 July 4, 1836, where the greater part of his life was spent. He was Assistant 

 Secretarj^ of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture and curator of 

 the State collections of natural history from 1860 to 1880, and in 1885 was 

 elected president of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Associa- 

 tion, which office he filled for seven years. His 'Ornithology and Oology 

 of New England ' passed through numerous editions, the title being changed 

 in the fifth edition (1870) to 'The Birds of New England,' and though still 

 printed from the original stereotype-plates, contained an Appendix of 70 

 pages of new matter. Although a compilation, the technical matter being 

 taken from Baird's 'Birds of North America' (1858), and much other 

 matter naturally from Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall, it proved of great 

 service as a popular work on the birds of the region treated, and for many 

 years was the only one of its kind available. His 'Among the Birds,' a 

 series of sketches for young folks, appeared in 1868, and was well adapted to 

 interest young people in birds. He was also author of 'Mammalogy of 

 New England,' 'With Fly-rod and Camera,' 'The Li\'ing World,' and other 

 works of like character, and a frequent contributor to ' Forest and Stream,' 

 and other journals devoted to natural history and field sports. An appre- 

 ciative notice of Mr. Samuels, with a portrait, is given in 'Forest and 

 Stream ' for Jime 13, 1908. 



In April last the A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclature and Classifica- 

 tion of North American Birds held a four days' session in Washington, and 

 took final action on practically all of the cases before it. Of the few still 

 deferred, the greater part can doubtless be settled in time for inclusion in 

 the new edition of the Check-List, which the Committee expects to have 

 ready for the press in a few months. As the results of the Committee's 

 work, not only during this session but for the past four years, are embodied 

 in the Fourteenth Supplement to the Check-List, published in the present 

 number of ' The Auk,' it is unnecessary to give further details here. ' j? 



The a. O. U. Reiised Code of Nomenclature is now in press and -^ill be 

 issued next month. Many of the Canons have been more or less changed, 

 usually by amplification wthout materially changing their purport or 

 purpose; a few have been radically modified, chiefly by the adoption of the 

 new 'Article 30' of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 

 which relates to the method of detennining the types of genera. Copies 



