^ 1912 J Notes and News. 571 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



WiLHELM August Heinrich Blasius, M. D., Ph.D., a Corresponding 

 Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, died at his home, Brunswick, 

 Germany, on May 31, 1912, after a prolonged illness. He was born in 

 Brunswick, July 5, 1845, son of the celebrated naturalist Prof. Dr. Johann 

 Heinrich Blasius, the author of 'Saiigethiere Deutschlands ' and co-author 

 with Count Keyserling of 'Die Wirbelthiere Europas'. His brother the 

 equally celebrated ornithologist Rudolph Blasius died only a few years ago. 



Wilhelm Blasius was since 1871 professor of Zoology and Botany in the 

 Herzogliche Technische Hochschule in Brunswick and was director of 

 both the Natural History Museum and the Botanic Garden, in the same 

 city, as well as a member of the Council of the Deutsche Ornithologische 

 Gesellschaft and member and honorary member of many scientific socie- 

 ties. He was a voluminous author of papers and memoirs dealing with 

 ornithology, mammalogy, anthropology and archaeology, among them a 

 monographic account of the Great Auk {Plautus impennis) which appeared 

 in 1903. 



Prof. Blasius visited America in 1907 as a delegate to the International 

 Zoological Congress in Boston and will be remembered by those who met 

 him as a man of the most lovable disposition and sterling qualities, whose 

 high scientific attainments were combined with a personality which at- 

 tracted all with whom he came in contact. 



John Gerrard Keulemans, the well known artist, died in London, 

 England, March 29, 1912. He was born June 8, 1842, at Rotterdam, 

 Holland, but did not become well known until he settled in England in 

 1869. From that time on almost every illustrated ornithological work 

 published in England contained products of his brush, from the first vol- 

 ume of the 'British Museum Catalogue of Birds' to the last part of 

 Mathews' 'Birds of Australia.' 



One is astonished in glancing through the foreign ornithological journals 

 to see the extent to which bird-banding or 'ringing' has been carried 

 recently and the returns that have been obtained. The results are not 

 only interesting and valuable in the case of migrants shot or captured far 

 from the place at which they were banded, but also in the case of ' resident ' 

 species. 



Mr. N. H. Joy of Bradfield, Berkshire, England, captured and 'ringed,' 

 during two years, upwards of 1500 Starlings in a cage trap located near his 

 house, besides 'ringing' a number of nestlings. Many of these birds were 

 re-caught several times and the accumulation of data is yielding valuable 

 results. Mr. Joy finds that he catches in the trap only about 5% of the 

 nestlings 'ringed' each year, and feels sure that a large number of them 



