342 Notes and News [j^ 



of the 'New Code' may be obtained on application to the Treasurer, Dr. 

 Jonathan Dwight, Jr., 134 West 71st Street, New York City. Price, 60 

 cents. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway, whose departure for Costa Rica was announced 

 in the last number of 'The Auk' (p. 248), returned in safety to this country 

 about the middle of May. Although his visit was not as prolonged as 

 originally intended, Mr. Ridgway succeeded, with the cooperation of his 

 friends, in collecting over 900 birds, besides other material. His collecting 

 stations were chiefly Escasu, at the base of the Cerro de la Candelaria; 

 Guayabo, at the eastern base of the Volcan Turrialba; also at an altitude 

 of over 9,000 feet on the volcano itself; and at Bonilla, east of Guayabo. 

 Owing to the extreme dryness of the plateau districts of the interior, and 

 of the western part of the country, several projected trips, notably one to 

 Mount Turubales, were abandoned, there having been no rain since Sep- 

 tember of last year. 



Mr. Ridgway attributes much of the success of his A-isit to the untiring 

 efforts of his friend Mr. Zeledon, who outfitted a party in charge of Don 

 Paco Basulto for a difficult journey into the Santa Maria de Dota and Cerro 

 de la Muerte districts. This party started early in May, and the results 

 of its explorations are expected to prove of great interest. It was Mr. 

 Ridgway's intfention to personally \asit the Cerro de la Muerte region, but 

 owing to the difficulties of travel he was obUged to forego it. Mr. Zeledon 

 thereupon took steps to have collections made there, and a party was at 

 once placed in the field. 



After impacking his Costa Rican spoils, Mr. Ridgway will resume work 

 on the fifth part of his ' Birds of North and Middle America.' — C. W. R. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman's trip to southern Florida (see antea, p. 249) 

 for material for additional bird groups for the American Museum of Natural 

 Historj^ was eminently successful, material being obtained for the consti'uc- 

 tion of large 'habitat groups ' of several of the Egrets and Herons, the White 

 Ibis, and the Roseate Spoonbill. On the way down he made a Ansit to the 

 Indian River Pelican colony on Pelican Island and secured a large number 

 of cinematograph, or 'moving, ' pictures of the birds, and also many colored 

 photographs of them and, later, of Herons and Spoonbills. A large series 

 of further ' habitat groups ' are now in process of construction at the Mu- 

 seum, some of which we hope to illustrate in a later number of this Journal. 



