C I o Notes and Netvs. . \^x. 



the food of birds, with special reference to the importance of better pro- 

 tection for birds in the State of Montana. A useful list of the principal 

 recent publications on economic ornithology is appended as a partial 

 bibliography of the subject. This timely paper should be of great inter- 

 est and service to the farmers and fruit-growers of Montana. — J. A. A. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. John Fannin, a Member of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 died at his home at Victoria, British Columbia, June 20, 1904. From 

 'Forest and Stream' (issue of July 9, 1904) we learn that "Mr. Fannin 

 was born in the backwoods of Kempville, Ontario, where he passed his 

 boyhood." In 1862, attracted by the news of the discovery of gold in the 

 Caribou district of British Columbia, he joined a party of miners "which 

 proposed to make on foot the journey across the great plains and the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast." The party set out from Fort 

 Garry (now Winnipeg), then a frontier settlement, and after four months 

 of difficulties and hardships reached the Fraser River. For nearly ten 

 years he prospected and mined in different parts of the Province, finding 

 himself as poor financially at the end of the period as when he begun, but 

 with a wealth of useful experience, and an intimate acquaintance with the 

 country, later utilized in the service of the Canadian Government. About 

 twenty-five years ago he settled on the banks of Burrard Inlet, near the 

 present town of New Westminster. "Mr. Fannin had always had a deep 

 love for nature, and here he settled down and began its systematic study, 

 though at first with little knowledge and almost without books. Here 

 .... without assistance, he taught himself most of the birds and mammals , 

 of the region .... As time went on, his fame as a naturalist spread 

 throughout British Columbia, and when, about sixteen years ago, the 

 Provincial Museum was established at Victoria, Mr. Fannin was made its 

 curator. . . . His services were heartily appreciated by the Government, 

 which in 1895 sent him to Europe and to the United States to study the 

 workings of modern museums." He unselfishly and unceasingly devoted 

 his time and strength to the increase and arrangement of the collections 

 under his charge. His principal contribution to ornithological literature 

 is his ' Check List of British Columbia Birds,' published at Victoria, B. C., 

 in 1891 (cf. Auk, IX, 1892, p. 65). He also contributed a few notes on 

 British Columbia birds to 'The Auk,' and was a correspondent of ' Forest 

 and Stream,' and other natural history journals. He was elected an 

 Associate of the A. O. U. in 1S88, and a member in 1901. 



