^""^S'^^^] Notes and News. 437 



'Proceedings' of the Philadelphia Academy. Let us hope that the American 

 institutions responsible for the recent explorations in Africa and South 

 America will see to it that they are commemorated in volumes worthy of 

 the splendid work of the naturalists who accompanied them. 



The work of bird protection goes steadily forward with a constantly 

 increasing majority of the citizens of our country earnestly supporting it. 

 The annual report of the National Association of Audubon Societies and 

 the bimonthly reports in 'Bird-Lore' show the wonderful extension of 

 educational work in the schools, while the splendid work at Meriden, N. H., 

 under the direction of Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes shows what a united 

 community may do in the interests of bird protection, and from hundreds 

 of other towns come inquiries about practical bird boxes and methods of 

 attracting the birds, from persons who had hitherto given them no consider- 

 ation. Legislative interests center about the National Capital and 

 bird protection won another victory on May 12 when the Senate by a vote 

 of 45 to 17 passed the House appropriation of $50,000 for the enforcement 

 of the Migratory Bird Law. 



The opponents of bird protection are by no means idle however, espe- 

 cially Senator Reed of Missouri who opposed the above appropriation as 

 bitterly as he did the Tariff provision, forbidding the importation of bird 

 plumage for millinery. 



The question of the constitutionality of the Migratory Bird Law will 

 finally be passed upon by the U. S. Supreme Court as we learn from a 

 circular issued by Mr. Wm. T. Homaday of the N. Y. Zoological Society, 

 that a decision rendered in the Federal Court of South Dakota, April 18 

 last upheld its constitutionality while another rendered in the U. S. District 

 Court of Arkansas on May 27 decided that it was unconstitutional. Scores 

 of able lawyers have offered their services in supporting the law before the 

 Supreme Court including Mr. Frederic R. Coudert, one of the most dis- 

 tinguished members of the American bar. 



The law in regard to Reedbirds will we understand be changed to allow 

 shooting on the Delaware meadows in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- 

 ware during part of the autumn. Unless this bird could be absolutely 

 protected, this seems but logical, since it was hardly fair to permit the 

 shooting in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina and prohibit it along 

 the Delaware. 



The cat as an enemy of birds is receiving well deserved consideration 

 but curiously enough proposed legislation against the felines in Massa- 

 chusetts has divided the humane organizations. The Fish and Game Pro- 

 tective Association and the Audubon Society are demanding that cats be 

 licensed while the Animal Rescue League and several Cat Societies are 

 opposing such action. 



Just as we go to press we are in receipt of Mr. Harry S. Swarth's 'Dis- 

 tributional List of the Birds of Arizona' published on May 25 as Pacific 



