5 I 2 Notes and News. \o^. 



of bird life as it is found in nature, and will also have many birds under 

 confinement for study and experiment. 



The following is a summary of the chief topics that will present an 

 immediate field for experimentation. 



I. The study and consideration of a bird as an individual. It is believed 

 that by means of observation carried through the entire life of the indi- 

 vidual, with a daily record, brief or elaborate, as exigencies may require, 

 much will be learned regarding matters that are now obscure. Facts, 

 such as growth, habits, health, temper, etc. will be daily reported. 



II. The study of the occurrence, extent, nature and cause of variations 

 in different representatives of the same species. 



III. Changes in color and appearance correlating with age, sex and 

 season. 



IV. Changes in color and appearance due to light, heat, presence or 

 absence of moisture, and to food. How rapid a change in appearance 

 can be affected by a new environment or a new set of conditions.'* 



V. Heredity. What general characteristics are transmitted .'' Are 

 acquired characteristics transmitted.' The consideration of atavism, 

 prepotency and telegony. 



VI. Experiments in breeding. Hybridity and the fertility of hybrids. 

 The possibilit}' of establishing a new physiological species. 



VII. Experiments in change of color due to moult. 



VIII. Adaptabilit}'. The plasticity of animals. How great a factor is 

 this in domesticating new kinds of animals.'' 



IX. The leisure of animals. How is this acquired? Being acquired, 

 how is this employed.' 



X. Instinct, habit, and the development of intelligence. 



XI. The possibility of breeding insectivorous and other beneficial kinds 

 of birds to re-stock a given region or to increase native birds, as has been 

 done in the case of fish, by the United States Fish Commission. 



A temporarj' laboratory and aviary is being equipped, and preliminary 

 work will begin with the installment of a large number of native and 

 foreign birds early in September. Mr. Worthington has procured the 

 services of Mr. William E. D. Scott, Curator of the Department of 

 Ornithology at Princeton University, as Director of the proposed work. 

 Mr. Bruce Horsfall has been engaged as chief assistant and artist. 



The Twenty-second Annual Congress of the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union will be held in Cambridge, Mass., beginning on the evening 

 of Monday, November 28, 1904. The evening session will be for the elec- 

 tion of officeis and members and for the transaction of routine business. 

 Tuesday and the following days the sessions will be for the presentation 

 and discussion of scientific papers, and will be open to the public. Mem- 

 bers intending to present communications are requested to forward the 

 titles of their papers to the Secretary, Mr. John H. Sage, Portland, Conn., 

 so as to reach him not later than November 25. 



