Vol. XXI I j Notes and News. I 09 



directed the work in all its details. Especially is this true of the Fla- 

 mingo group, which has entailed on Mr. Chapman's part indomitable 

 perseverance, much hardship,, and field-craft of the highest order. The 

 locating, after many discouraging experiences, of this immense Flamingo 

 colony, its successful invasion with a novel photographic equipment, and 

 a sojourn for days almost within hand-reach of the brooding birds, is a 

 triumph of tact and skill, buoyed by unflagging enthusiasm, unparalleled 

 in the annals of ornithological exploration. Mow it was accomplished 

 has been modestly told by Mr. Chapman in an article in the ' Century 

 Magazine' for December, 1904, which strikingly illustrates, with its many 

 photographs, the home life of the Flamingo in its Bahaman home. There 

 is now little left to imagine in the domestic life of this striking and pecu- 

 liarly interesting bird, the camera has so fully revealed the long-hidden 

 mysteries of its manner of reproduction. There is no longer any doubt 

 that it sits on its nest as do other birds, and does not straddle it with a 

 leg hanging down on either side, as formerly believed. The young have 

 been found to have a general resemblance to young fluffy ducklings, but 

 to be less precocious, being fed for several days in the nest by the 

 old birds ; on the other hand they are not so helpless and are less altri- 

 cial than the Heron tribe, with which and with the Anseres they 

 were formerly alternately placed by the systematists. The younger 

 stages of their infantile life and their subsequent development are now 

 not only for the first time made known, but the most important period of 

 their life history is fully portrayed in a museum group, forming one of 

 the most interesting and instructive ornithological exhibits ever placed 

 before the public. 



The second edition of Henry Reed Taylor's ' Standard American Egg 

 Catalogue ' will doubtless be warmly welcomed by not only egg collectors 

 but by others, as it gives the A. O. U. Check-List numbers, and the tech- 

 nical and common names to date, arranged in proper sequence. It con- 

 tains also a Directory of some sixty or seventy of the leading collectors, 

 and a dozen pages of introductory matter of general interest to oologists. 



For several years past there has been a National Committee of Audu- 

 bon Societies, made up of representatives of each of the State societies, 

 with Mr. William Dutcher as Chairman. The purpose of this Committee 

 was to secure cooperation and unity of interest between the several State 

 organizations. As the field of activities has broadened and the impor- 

 tance of the undertaking has steadily increased, it has seemed more and 

 more desirable to centralize the work of bird protection in a national 

 organization, and accordingly steps have been taken, and are now about 

 completed, for the incorporation of a National Association of Audubon 

 Societies. The National Association will be incorporated under the laws 

 of New York, and the headquarters of the Association will be in New 

 York City. The management will be vested in a board of thirty directors, 



