V ^3 X ] Notes and News. 387 



Congress Auxiliary." It is the design of the committee having the matter 

 in hand il to have the Congress treat of birds from the standpoints of the 

 scientist, the economist and the humanitarian." It is "the wish of the 

 committee to enlist the co-operation of scientists in the proposed Con- 

 gress, in order that the study and culture of birds may become more 

 general and may be appreciated at its true worth by the people. The true 

 scientist only can prove the value and interest that lie in the department 

 of ornithology, and in its appreciation does the importance of the two 

 other divisions depend. The audiences of the Congress," says the circular 

 of the committee, "will doubtless be largely composed of those who, 

 through aesthetic and humane sympathy rather than intellectual apprecia- 

 tion, have been attracted to the subject, and they will prove a fertile soil 

 for the popularizing of the science." 



While technical papers would obviously be out of place, there is room 

 for a wide range of semi-popular communications adapted to interest and 

 educate the mixed audiences that will attend the Congress. The com- 

 mittee solicits especially those of a practical character, bearing upon the 

 rearing and taming of song birds, methods of promoting the increase of 

 beneficial species, and especially of checking the indiscriminate slaughter 

 of useful and beautiful varieties, including the subject of legislation for 

 their preservation. 



The time designated for the Congress is the week beginning October 16. 

 It is hoped that ornithologists will render any aid in their power to make 

 the occasion a success. There is a general Committee of six, with Dr. 

 Elliott Coues as Chairman and Prof. S. A. Forbes as Vice-chairman, and 

 a Woman's Committee of six, with E. Irene Rood as Chairman. The 

 Advisory Council has not yet been announced. 



We have recently received Volume I of Mr. Henry Nehrling's English 

 edition of his great work on North American birds. It forms a quarto 

 of over 400 pages, with 18 colored plates, and in point of typography is 

 an elegant example of book-making. As is known to many readers of 

 'The Auk,' the work has for some time been appearing in Parts (see Auk, 

 VII, p. 7S, etc.), and now that the first half has been gathered into book 

 form the author improves the occasion to make known more definitely 

 than heretofore, apparently, the exact scope of his enterprise. It appears 

 also that a change has been decided upon in the title, which is now 

 'Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty.' The author further says in his 

 preface: "The title does not give the reader a full idea of the scope and 

 contents of the work. It treats of all our native birds from the Thrushes 

 to the Parrots, including all our Songbirds, Flycatchers, Hummingbirds. 

 Swifts, Goatsuckers, Woodpeckers. Kingfishers, Trogons, and Cuckoos, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Alaska and Labrador to Florida 

 and Mexico." The work "is intended to fill the gap between the very 

 expensive and the merely technical ornithological books," and "to com- 

 bine accuracy and reliability of biography with a minimum of technical 

 description." There is evidently a field for such a work, whigh Mr. 



Nehrling's book seems we!! adapted to fill, 



