186 Notes and News. [| a u n k 



The president of the A. 0. U. has appointed as a Committee on Classifi- 

 cation and Nomenclature of North American Birds, Witmer Stone, Chair- 

 man, Charles W. Richmond, Jonathan Dwight, T. S. Palmer and Harry C. 

 Oberholser. It was thought that the old committee had become too large 

 for effective work as it was impossible to secure a quorum to attend a meet- 

 ing, all the members of the new committee, however, were members of the 

 old one. A meeting will be held in Washington soon after the first of the 

 year when plans for a new edition of the A. O.U. 'Check-List' will be formu- 

 lated and active work begun. It is planned to make this work the Nearctic 

 volume of the proposed ' Systema Avium ' to be gotten out jointly by the 

 B. 0. U. and the A. O. U. while the Neotropical volume will probably also 

 be prepared by an A. O. U. Committee. Mr. W. L. Sclater has been con- 

 ferring with the members of the A. O. U. Committee on plans for a uniform 

 system of classification and nomenclature and for establishing uniform 

 limits for such genera as occur on both sides of the Atlantic. 



The collection of birds at the Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa, 

 according to information obtained from the curator Mr. P. A. Taverner, 

 now contains some 14,000 skins and mounted birds and 1,600 sets of eggs 

 and nests. These are practically all Canadian specimens and with a very 

 few gaps include all the species mentioned in the Macoun Catalogue. 



The following localities are more or less fully represented: Cape Sable 

 and King's Co., N. S.; Miscou Island, Gloucester Co., N. B.; Perce, 

 Gaspe Co., and Bonne Esperance, Saguenay Co., Que.; Ottawa, Point 

 Pelee, Go-Home Bay, Georgian Bay, and Kapuskasing, Ont.; Lac Seul, 

 N. Ont.; Douglas and Shoal Lake, Man.; Indian Head, Sask.; Medicine 

 Hat, Red Deer River, Edmonton, Banff, and Jasper Park, Alta.; Fernie, 

 Elko, Trail, Midway, Penticton, Revelstoke, Kamloops, Chilliwack, 

 Agassiz, Vancouver, Victoria, Departure Bay, Comox, Barkley Sound, 

 Hazelton, Vanderhoof, and Telkwa, B. C; Teslin Lake, Y. T.; Arctic 

 Coast, east to Coronation Gulf, and Franklin, Victoria, Banks, Melville 

 and Southampton Islands. Many of the specimens of the older geological 

 survey expeditions have been lost but the magnificent Spreadborough 

 collection is in good state of preservation. In 1911, the collection numbered 

 but 3000 specimens. 



A study of the A. O. U. list of members shows some interesting facts, 

 There are still on the roll nine of the founders; Allen, Batchelder, Bicknell. 

 Brown, Cory, Fisher, Merriam, Ridgway and Shufeldt. Of those elected in 

 1883, are twelve Fellows: Barrows, Chadbourne, Deane, Dutcher, Dwight, 

 Grinnell (G. B.), Loomis, Nehrling, Nelson, Roberts, Sage and Saunders, 

 and two Retired Fellows: Henshaw, Lawrence (N. T.), while seven are 

 Members: Evermann, Jeffries, Knowlton, Murdoch, Seton, Stephens, 

 and Townsend (C. H.), and two Associates; Harry Merrill and H. K. Coale. 



The 1884 series comprises only,Bangs, Widmann and Stejneger. In 1885 

 there were the following additions : Anthony, Bishop, Chapman and Stone 



