128 Notes and News. LJan. 



contributing thereby greatly to the pleasure of the many bird-lovers who 

 visit the Park for purposes of study. 



A paper by Curator Beebe, giving some account of the birds in the Park 

 aviaries, their peculiarities and behavior, and various interesting experi- 

 ences in their management, which he kindly presented at the A. O. U. 

 Congress, was a good introduction for the members to their subsequent 

 visit, and contributed to the interest with which they later made their 

 acquaintance with the birds themselves in the Garden. 



John W. Audubon's 'Western Journal: 1849-1850,' of his notable 

 overland journey from Texas through Mexico and Arizona to California, 

 is being brought out in one volume, 8vo, with map, portrait, and plates, 

 under the competent editorship of Prof. Frank H. Hodder of the Univer- 

 sity of Kansas, by the Arthur H. Clark Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It 

 will also contain a biographical memoir by his daughter, Miss Maria R. 

 Audubon, who has been able to avail herself of a large amount of material 

 not accessible to any other biographer. The plates illustrating the 'Jour- 

 nal' are from the author's original sketches. Price, $3.00 net. 



A new work on oology by George Krause, entitled 'Oologia universalis 

 palaearctica,' has been announced by Fritz Lehmann of Stuttgart, to 

 appear in 150 Parts, quarto, each part to consist of two or three plates 

 with the text, the publication to be completed if possible in two years. 

 The subscription price is Is. 6d. per part. The text will be printed in 

 both English and German, so as to give the work greater availability. A 

 plate will be given, wherever possible, for each species, so as to present 

 illustrations of all the principal variations, as shown in the sample plate 

 of the eggs of the European Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) , where 

 sixteen very distinct color phases are depicted. The author, who is an 

 oologist of distinction, is also the artist and designer of the plates, and 

 thus will be able to bring to the work the critical eye of the expert. The 

 text will be 'schematic' and brief, giving in a few lines the breeding range, 

 time of hatching, size and number of the eggs, etc., leaving the excellent 

 plates to tell the tale of the color variations. 



During the last three years the American Museum of Natural History 

 has employed Mr. J. H. Batty to collect for it natural history material 

 in Mexico. His collections consist mainly of birds and mammals, but 

 include many reptiles, some insects and crustaceans, and about 600 photo- 

 graphic negatives. The mammals include large series of the larger species, 

 particularly of carnivores and deer, the felines, from ocelots to jaguars, 

 being especially well represented. The birds number nearly 5000 skins 

 besides several hundreds nests and eggs. The areas quite exhaustively 

 worked include northwestern Durango, southern Sinaloa, and the States 

 of Jalisco and Colima. A report on the southern Sinaloa collection of 

 birds has already been prepared and published in the Museum 'Bulletin,' 

 and an account of the Durango birds is ready for publication, both being 

 by Mr. Waldron DeWitt Miller, assistant in ornithology at the Museum. 



