Vol .'8*6 in ] Notes and News - 93 



Now the question that I should like to have jointly considered by 

 ornithologists and meteorologists, is whether there is a correlated varia- 

 tion in the flight of soaring birds and in the activity of local convectional 

 movements, or other vertical movements. Do soaring birds float for a 

 longer time without flapping wings in weather when convectional ascend- 

 ing currents are indicated, or in localities where disorderly ascensional 

 currents, prompted by irregularity in the land surface, may be expected? 

 A pair of observers, one attending to the behavior of birds, the other 

 following out the processes of the winds, might perhaps discover some 

 interesting correlations in this held of study. The work might be 

 commended to semi-invalids, who are sent South in search of mild 

 weather and gentle occupation. Could anything be more genially lazy 

 than lying on one's back in the sun, and counting the turns of a Turkey 

 Buzzard ? 



Very truly yours, 



W. ML Davis, 



Cambridge, Mass. 

 November ,\ iSgs- 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Thomas Henry Huxley, an Honorary Member of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, died June 29, 1895. at his home in Eastbourne, 

 England, in the 71st year of his age, having been born at Ealing, Middle- 

 sex, England, May 4, 1S25. His early education was obtained partly at 

 home and in part "at the semi-public school at Ealing, of which his 

 father was one of the masters." In 1842, he entered the medical school of 

 Charing Cross Hospital, and in 1845 passed the first M. B. examination at 

 the University of London. The following year he joined the medical 

 service of the Royal Navy, and was soon after assigned to the post of 

 assistant surgeon to II. M. S. 'Rattlesnake,' which sailed from England 

 late in the year 1846 for a surveying cruise in the Southern Seas, and 

 thence around the world, returning to England in 1S50. In recognition of 

 his scientific work during this voyage, he was elected in June, 1851, a 

 fellow of the Roj^al Society. He left the naval service in 1853, and in 

 1854 was appointed naturalist to the Geological Survey, and also made 

 professor of natural history in the Government School of Mines, which 

 latter position he occupied till 18S5. From 1863 to 1869 he was Hunterian 

 professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was president of the 

 Geological Society of London in 1869 and 1870, president of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science in 1870. and of the Royal 



