Q2 Notes and News. Auk 
Jan. 
on the acceptance of his resignation he was reelected as a Corresponding 
Member. 
Dr. Prentiss was born in Washington in 1843, and was a graduate of 
the Columbian University and of the University of Pennsylvania, where 
he took his medical degree. He served with distinction as a surgeon in 
the civil war, and later became one of the best known and ablest physi- 
cians of Washington. For many years he also held the chair of Materia 
Medica and Therapeutics in the Columbian Medical College, which he 
filled with marked ability, and was beloved and reverenced by his students. 
He published much on medicine and surgery, and was a good naturalist. 
His chief ornithological publication was ‘ A List of Birds ascertained to 
inhabit the District of Columbia,’ etc. (1862), with Dr. Coues, a second 
edition of which, under the title ‘ Avifauna Columbiana,’ appeared in 
1883. He never lost his interest in ornithology, but the exacting 
demands of his profession prevented his devoting much time to strictly 
ornithological work. 
Mr. W. W. Corsurn, an Associate Member of the American Orni- 
thologists’ Union, died suddenly of heart failure at his home in Spring- 
field, Mass., Oct. 17, 1899, at the age of 60 years. Mr. Colburn was born 
at New Boston, N. H., and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 
1861. Later he was a teacher in the Lawrence Academy at Groton, Mass. 
For twelve years he was principal of the High School at Manchester, 
N. H., and in 1874 became principal of the High School at Springfield, 
Mass., which position he held till 1890. After his retirement he received 
private pupils and conducted classes in natural history. He was greatly 
respected, and one of Springtield’s best loved citizens, taking a prominent 
part in the social and educational life of the city. “He was perhaps 
the best ornithologist of the section, and his services in spreading popu- 
lar instruction concerning our songbirds and in awakening a sentiment 
against their destruction and their use in millinery had been most valua- 
ble. He had been president of the Peabody Society, which has for its 
aim the protection of our native birds.” In conjunction with Mr. Robert 
O. Morris, he published in 1897 a nominal list of 203 species of wild birds 
observed in Forest Park, Springfield, Mass., in the Report of the Park 
Commissioners for that year. 
ONE oF the pleasantest episodes of the Seventeenth Congress of the 
A. O. U. was the receipt of a gift to the Union of $100, from Miss Juliette 
A. Owen of St. Joseph, Mo., an Associate Member of the Union, which 
she desired the Council to devote to such use as seemed to it most fitting. 
While the sum is not large, comparatively speaking, it is most auspi- 
cious and encouraging. The subject of raising a fund in aid of orni- 
thological research is one that has been often considered by at least 
individual members of the A. O. U. Council, and some little effort was 
at one time made to initiate such a desirable movement. Nothing, how- 
