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piinj, and was prominent in lailroad, banking and other business enter- 

 prizes, and conspicuouslj active in educational and philanthropic works. 

 His intelligent interest in natural history was especially manifested 

 through his gift, in 1891, to his native city of the Fairbanks Museum of 

 Natural History. He had been an Associate Member of the A. O. U. 

 since 1SS5, but his relation to ornithology was mainly that of a promoter 

 of the science. 



Mr. George H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, Cooke Co., Texas, an Asso- 

 ciate Member of the American Ornithologists' Union, died at his home 

 in Gainesville, March 25, 1895. Mr. Ragsdale has been a frequent con- 

 tributor for the last ten years to 'The Auk' and other natural history 

 journals of interesting field notes respecting the ornithology of Cooke 

 County, Texas, with which he was especially familiar, and did much 

 to popularize natural history through his contributions to the local 

 newspapers, with one of which, ' The Hesperian,' he was editorially 

 associated. 



The Rev. A. H. Gesner, of Sing Sing, N. Y., an Associate Member 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union, died at his home in that city, 

 April 30, 1S95. Mr. Gesner was a well-known clergyman of the Epis- 

 copal Church, and for many years had taken an intelligent interest in 

 ornithology, making frequent excursions afield to study the ways of his 

 bird friends, but he has left few published records of his observations. 



As THESE pages go to press the sad announcement reaches us of the 

 death of Professor Thomas H. Huxley, an Honorary Member of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, who died on the afternoon of June 29, 

 at the age of 70 years. A notice of his life and works, and particularly 

 his important contributions to ornithology, is necessarily deferred to a 

 later issue of this journal. 



We have just received from the publisher, David Douglas (10 Castle 

 Street, Edinburgh), acop3'ofthe long hoped for English translation of 

 Herr Giitke's ' Die Vogelwarte Helgoland,' published in 1891 (see Auk, 

 VIII, 1891, p. 299). The translation bears the title ' Heligoland as an 

 Ornithological Observatory : The Result of Fifty Years' Experience,' and 

 is made by Mr. Rudolph Rosenstock. The preface to the English edition 

 is by Mr. John A. Harvie-Brown, who is, as he expresses it, " in a 

 measure, godfather to this edition of Mr. Giitke's Observations on the 

 avifauna of Heligoland." A further notice of this important work will 

 be given in a later number of this journal. 



