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Notes and News. " t 



The following Post Office news item will doubtless be of interest to 

 many readers of 'The Auk.' "A proposition submitted by the Post- 

 master General to the International Postal Bureau to admit specimens of 

 natural history to the international mails at the postage rate and con- 

 ditions applying to 'samples of merchandise' has been rejected by a vote 

 of the countries composing the Universal Postal Union, and consequently 

 all such specimens (except those addressed to Canada or Mexico) must 

 be fully prepaid at letter rates ; and dried animals and insects cannot be 

 sent under any conditions, being absolutely excluded by the provisions of 

 the Universal Postal Union Convention, regardless of the amount of 

 postage prepaid thereon. This will prevent the exchange of such speci- 

 mens between collectors, natural history museums, etc., by international 

 mails, and no package known to contain them can be accepted at a post 

 office for mailing to foreign countries. Natural history specimens (other 

 than dried animals and insects) may be sent to Canada as 'merchandise' 

 at one cent an ounce. They may also be sent by parcel post to Mexico 

 and to all other countries with which the United States has parcels post 

 conventions." 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild has issued a prospectus of a new 

 journal of natural history in connection with his museum at Tring, Eng- 

 land, to be entitled 'Novitates Zoologicaj.' It will be imperial octavo in 

 size, and form an annual volume of about 400 to 600 pages, with ten to 

 fifteen plates. It will contain articles on insects, birds, mammals, reptiles 

 and fishes, and also on general zoology and pake-ontology. The parts 

 will appear at irregular intervals, beginning with January, 1S94. Sub- 

 scriptions (21 shillings yearly) may be addressed to Ernst Hartert, 

 Zoological Museum, Tring, Herts, England. 



The collections forming Mr. Rothschild's museum were begun in 1875, 

 and the building containing the collections was started in 18SS and first 

 opened to the public Sept. 1, 1892. In November of the same year the 

 well-known ornithologist, Mr. Ernst Hartert, was given the general 

 curatorship. The museum contains two distinct departments, the 'Public 

 Galleries' and the 'Student's Department.' The former contains large 

 collections of mounted specimens in all departments of zoology; the 

 latter is "entirely devoted to ornithology, coleoptera and lepidoptera." 

 The birds already number about 40,000 skins, representing over 7000 

 species. 



R. II. Porter, the London publisher, has issued a prospectus of a work 

 entitled 'The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighboring islands; with a 

 complete history of the Birds of the Hawaiian Possessions,' by the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild. It will be illustrated with 46 colored and S black 

 plates by Messrs. Keulemans and Frohawk, and iS collotype photographs, 

 the latter "showing various phases of bird-life and landscape." The 

 edition will be limited to 250 copies, and no separate parts will be sold. 

 The book will be published in three parts, imperial quarto, at £3 3 s. per 

 part. 



