[ray 
322 Notes and News. 
commissioner under the Slave Trade Treaties at the Cape. Transferred 
to the Consular Service, he was for some years at Para, at the mouth of 
the Amazons; next he was sent to Fiji, where he arranged the cession, 
and was decorated in 1875; he then resumed Consular Service at Noumea, 
New Caledonia, and ultimately retired after forty-seven years of hard 
work. Layard was not a producer of books, and his chief work in this 
line was ‘ The Birds of South Africa,’ published in 1867, of which a new 
and revised edition, with the collaboration of Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, made 
its appearance between 1875-84. It is rather by his many and varied con- 
tributions from 1854 almost to the time of his much regretted death that 
he will be remembered; and a column of closely-printed type in the Gen- 
eral Subject Index to ‘The Ibis’ testifies to his energy in our special sub- 
ject. Besides these, his bright and pleasant letters to ‘The Field,’ under 
his own name or the pseudonym of ‘ Bos Cafter,’ will be familiar to most 
of our readers; and his genial personality will be greatly missed and 
regretted by all who have had the pleasure of his acquaintance.” 
PERcyY S. SELOous, an Associate Member of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union, died at his home in Greenville, Mich., on April 7,1900. His death 
was due to the bite of a pet Florida moccasin. Mr. Selous was a great 
traveller and an enthusiastic naturalist, especially interested in birds and 
reptiles. He was a member of the Michigan Ornithological Club, and an 
occasional contributor to various natural history journals, including ‘The 
Auk.’ 
ALL PERSONS interested in fish and game protection and the protection 
of our birds, will be glad to learn that a course of lectures, together with 
field observations and demonstrations on this important subject now con- 
stitutes a regular part of the instruction in Cornell University. The 
course is offered to the junior and senior classes in the New York State 
College of Forestry, which was established two years ago as one of the 
colleges in Cornell University, with Dr. B. E. Fernow as Director. 
The course is given by Dr. B. W. Evermann, ichthyologist of the U. S. 
Fish Commission, and consists of lectures, laboratory demonstrations and 
field observations on the life-histories of the important species of fresh- 
water food and game fishes, their artificial propagation and their protec- 
tion; the relation of the forest to the streams and lakes and their inhabit- 
ants; the relation of the various forestry, logging, milling, mining and 
irrigation operations to the streams and lakes and to their inhabitants; 
and the value of the mammals and birds of the forest and how to protect 
them. 
THE DEUTSCHEN ORNITHOLOGISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT will hold its an- 
nual meeting at Leipzig, Oct. 5-g, 1900. This is the fiftieth anniversary of 
the founding of the Society. In the celebration of this anniversary the 
American Ornithologists’ Union is cordially invited to take part. The 
