322 Notes arid News. L April 



New Caledonia, the original type of which was sent to the Colonial Exhi- 

 bition at Paris in 1860 by Mons. Latour, and described by Jules Verreaux. 

 We do not know whether there are any specimens of this bird in any 

 American Museum but there are none in either the U. S. National Museum 

 or the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 



The Kagu is closely related to the Sun Bittern (Eurypyga helias) though 

 in appearance it looks more like a small pale gray heron. It is regarded 

 as a very ancient and generalized type, with relationship to the Rails and 

 Trumpeters. 



We understand that another specimen is living in the New York Zoo- 

 logical Park. 



We learn from ' The Emu' that the annual meeting of the Royal Austral- 

 asian Ornithologists' Union was held in Melbourne, December 4, 1918, 

 and was attended by eighteen members, exactly as many as were present 

 at the business meeting of the A. O. U. in November. The officers elected 

 were A. F. Basset Hull of Sydney, President; W. H. D. Le Soeuf, Hon. 

 Secretary; Z. Gray, Hon. Treasurer; and Dr. J. A. Leach, Hon. Editor 

 of 'The Emu.' The R. A. O. U. has had 39 members in military service 

 of whom 5 lost their lives during the past year. The Union maintains a 

 room at Temple Court in Melbourne where it keeps its library and col- 

 lections including the celebrated White and Austin collections of Australian 

 birds' eggs. Well attended conversaziones are held at its room on the first 

 Wednesday in each month and quarterly meetings at the National Museum. 

 The report of the treasurer shows that the assets of the Union amount. to 

 over $9000. 



The collection of birds in the U. S. National Museum has recently 

 passed the 200,000 mark. This collection has doubled since 1884 when the 

 number of specimens reached 100,000 (see 'The Auk,' 1884, p. 403). In 

 this connection it is interesting to recall that the British Museum collection 

 was said to have contained 500,000 specimens ten years ago (Ibis, 9th ser., 

 II. Jub. Suppl. p. 4, 1909). 



The Treasurer reports that less than forty copies of the last edition of 

 the 'Check-List of North American Birds,' published in 1910, now remain 

 on hand. Members who have not secured copies should do so at once as 

 libraries are constantly ordering the book and the stock will doubtless soon 

 be exhausted. It will probably be several years before another edition 

 of the 'Check-List' is issued. 



At the recent session of Congress two new National Parks were estab- 

 lished on areas previously set aside as National Monuments. These parks 

 are the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the Lafayette National Park on 

 Mt. Desert Island on the coast of Maine. The latter reservation was pre- 

 viously known as the Sieur de Monts National Monument. This action 



