Vol - 1 f 1 f XV ] Notes and News. 109 



tribution of Bird Life in Colombia ' is probably the most important, while 

 Beebe's 'Tropical Wild Life in British Guiana,' and W. S. Brooks' Notes 

 on 'Falkland Island Birds,' based on the work of the Phillips Expedition 

 of 1915-16, furnish glimpses of the avifauna of the extremes of the South 

 American continent. Two important reports on insular bird life off the 

 North American coast are Howell's 'Birds of the Islands off the Coast 

 of Southern California' and Hanna's paper on the 'Birds of St. Matthew 

 Island' in Bering Sea. Among the numerous papers on the birds of the 

 Eastern Hemisphere, Despott's 'Notes on the Ornithology of Malta', 

 Captain Sladen's 'Notes on Birds observed in Macedonia ', Sclater's 'Birds 

 of Yemen, southwest Arabia', Oberholser's 'Birds of Bawean Island, Java 

 Sea ', and 'Birds of the Anamba Islands in the China Sea '. H. L. White's 

 account of North Australian Birds' and J. P. Chapin's 'Classification of 

 Weaver Birds ' merit special mention. The more technical papers comprise 

 Richmond's third supplement to Waterhouse's 'Index Generum Avium', 

 containing 600 'Generic Names applied to Birds during the years 1906 

 to 1915 inclusive', Oberholser's series of 'Notes on North American 

 Birds ', and Wayne's 'List of Species for which South Carolina is the type 

 locality'. Bergtold's extended 'Study of the Incubation Periods of 

 Birds' and Casey A. Wood's 'Fundus Oculi of Birds' are notable contribu- 

 tions to little cultivated fields of ornithological literature. Avian anatomy 

 has received some attention in Wetmore's 'Secondary Characters in the 

 Ruddy Duck' and Petronievic and Woodward's paper 'On the Pectoral 

 and Pelvic Arches of the British Museum Specimen of Archceopteryx' 

 (P. Z. S. pp. 1-6). New light has been thrown on some of the extinct 

 birds of the United States by Matthew and Granger's description of 'The 

 Skeleton of Diatrijma' from the Eocene of Wyoming, and Shufeldt's 

 accounts of Fossil Birds from Vero, Florida. In the department of biog- 

 raphy the record of the year is rather remarkable. Here should be men- 

 tioned J. A. Allen's notable 'Autobiography' (printed in 1916 but not 

 generally distributed until early in the present year) Herrick's 'Audubon 

 the Naturalist', in two volumes, and the final parts of Mullens and 

 Swann's 'Bibliography of British Ornithology'. 



Educational Work. A notable feature of ornithological work of the 

 twentieth century is the ever increasing attention given to bird study in 

 the schools and colleges. As an aid to beginners in this subject Pearson 

 has prepared a useful and instructive 'Bird Study Book'. Foremost in 

 the educational field is the National Association of Audubon Societies 

 which during the year has organized 11935 Junior Audubon Classes in 

 which instruction on birds has been given to 261,654 children in^the United 

 States and Canada. The Association has also arranged for courses in 

 bird study in 11 Summer Schools including the Maryland Agricultural 

 College, University of Virginia, Summer School of the South at Knoxville, 

 Tenn., the State Universities of Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, 

 South Carolina and Vermont and several otherjjinstitutions. A course 

 in ornithology was given this year at the summer Biological Station of the 



