356 Notes and News. [j^jy 



Oustelet was president of the third International Ornithological Congress 

 held in Paris in 1900; he was also a corresponding member of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union, the American Ornithologists' Union, the London 

 Zoological Society, and honorary member of many French and foreign 

 natural history societies, and of course many species were named in his 

 honor. It also fell to his lot to describe many remarkable forms of bird 

 life. 



Victor Fatio, a Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, died at his home in Geneva, Switzerland, March 19, 1906, at the 

 age of 67 years. A notice of his life and labors will appear in a later number 

 of this journal. 



George F. Breninger, an Associate of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, and widely known as a collector and taxidermist, died at his home 

 in Phoenix, Arizona, December 3, 1905, of arsenical poisoning acquired in 

 the preparation of specimens. Mr. Breninger had recently been in the 

 employ of the Field Museum of Natural History, and for some years past 

 was a frequent contributor to 'The Auk,' 'The Condor,' 'The Osprey,' 

 and other ornithological publications. He had collected extensively in 

 Arizona, Mexico, and California. A paper in 'The Auk' (XXI, 1904, pp. 

 218-223), giving an account of 'San Clemente Island and its Birds,' is based 

 on his experiences there as a collector for the Field Columbian Museum. 



La Rue K. Holmes, an Associate of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 died at his home in Summit, New Jersey, May 10, 1906, in the 24th year of 

 his age. He was the only son of Colonel B. P. and Georgiana K. Holmes, 

 and was born at Summit, December 28, 18S3. As a boy he early developed 

 a strong interest in natural history, and later became passionately fond of 

 the study of birds. Besides his association with the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union, he was a Corresponding Member of the Delaware Valley 

 Ornithological Club, and contributed to 'Cassinia' for 1904 a carefully 

 prepared paper on 'The Short-billed Marsh Wren (Cistothorus stellaris) 

 in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey' (I. c, pp. 17-25). For several 

 months in 1905 he was employed in the American Museum of Natural 

 History as an assistant in the department of ornithology. He was a careful 

 field observer, and gave promise of much efficiency as an ornithologist. 

 His death was due primarily to an attack of pneumonia. 



Mr. J. H. Batty, for the last three and a half years a collector of natural 

 history specimens, chiefly birds and mammals, for the American Museum 

 of Natural History, was killed instantly by the accidental discharge of his 

 gun while collecting near Pijijiapam, in the southern part of the State of 

 Chiapas, Mexico, on May 26, 1906. Previously he had collected exten- 

 sively in the province of Chiriqui, Panama, and in the Cauca region of 



