142 Notes and News. [f^ 



fishing the lakes and streams of the Sierras afford. We want you to see 

 the beauty and grandeur of our unrivalled Yosemite, and to walk with 

 you beneath our great redwoods which were old when our forefathers 

 landed on the eastern coast. 



We have more to show you than most of you imagine, and under condi- 

 tions never before existing as far as rates of travel, good fellowship, a wish 

 to welcome all the world and the desire to please our guests are concerned, 

 to say nothing of the fact that there will be gathered here in various con- 

 ventions of numerous bodies, many of the world's greatest minds. Travel- 

 ling rates will be low, hotel keepers have agreed not to raise their prices 

 above the everyday mark, accommodations will be ample, good, and at 

 rates to meet one's purse, while the desire to make the Exposition a success, 

 rather than to make large profits out of those who come, seems to prevail. 



The meeting will be held May 18th to 20th, this being chosen as being 

 the best average date at which to see our bird life in the nesting season, 

 which really commences in February and lasts until August! Let us all do 

 our best to make this meeting a grand success, to form new friendships, 

 and to make of it a pleasant memory that will never leave our hearts. 

 Each who comes can do his or her share to make the A. O. TJ. meeting in 

 California something to look back upon with pleasure, and to talk of around 

 the fire on snowy winter nights. 



Come all who can, yet bear in mind, one and all, that while we have 

 warm weather in the interior of California, San Francisco is a cool spot 

 where light overcoats and wraps are always in order and may be needed at 

 any moment! 



Details as to rates of travel, hotel expenses, interesting side trips, etc., 

 will be furnished later. 



Joseph Mailliard, 



Chairman Committee on Arrangements. 



San Francisco, Cal. 



After preparing the note in the last issue of 'The Auk,' on beneficial 

 effect of the new tariff in stopping the importation of Rhea plumage and 

 thereby putting an end to a trade that threatened the extinction of this 

 splendid bird, we were astonished to learn that. by a decision of the 

 Treasury Department, the Rhea was excepted from the operation of the 

 law. The official notice states: "It appears from the best information 

 obtainable by the department that the so-called Rhea is, in fact, an ostrich, 

 and the feathers of such birds may, therefore, be admitted without requir- 

 ing proof that the plumage was taken from domestic birds." With the 

 wealth of technical knowledge so easily obtainable from the scientific de- 

 partments of the government it is rather remarkable that the Treasury 

 Department should have taken upon itself the settlement of such an im- 

 portant ornithological question. 



However open to criticism its action in this respect maybe, its willingness 

 to promptly admit an error is exceedingly praiseworthy, and we are grati- 



