582 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



may be established for increase of membership. Details of 

 organization will be considered at the first meeting. 



'' Should you favour this proposition, and propose to attend 

 the first meeting, please so signify to any one of the under- 

 signed. 



'' J. A. Allen, 



Cambridge, Mass., 



Editor of the Nidtall Bidlctin. 



''Elliott Coues, 



Wasliiugtou, D.C., 



Assoc. Editor of the Nidtall Bulletin. 



''William Brewster, 



Cambridge, Mass., 



President of the Nuttall Club:' 



[On the part of the Members of the B. O. U. we need 

 hardly say that we tender to the A. O. U. our most cordial 

 good wishes for their success. — Edd.] 



Birds of Bering Island. — The recently issued sheets of the 

 'Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum^ contain some 

 very interesting letters from Mr. L. Stejneger, with an account 

 of his expedition to Bering Island, well known as the former 

 home of the extinct Rhytina stelleri. Mr. Stejneger arrived 

 at Gavan, the harbour of Bering Island, on the 7th of May 

 last year («7i« San Francisco), and after a short visit to Petro- 

 paulovski (where he met with Dr. B. Dybowski) returned to 

 Bering Island, and made an excursion round its shores, 

 where in one locality Rissa brevirostris was found in large 

 flocks. The general fades of the land-fauna is pronounced 

 to be Palsearctic. The total number of species recognized up 

 to the date of the letter amounted to sixty-one, without 

 counting those collected in Petropaulovski ; and besides these 

 Mr. Stejneger had observed about ten species of which no 

 specimens had been secured. Among the latter were Sterna 

 longipennis, Temm., of which only four pairs had bred on the 

 island ; but Sterna aleutica was looked for in vain. Upon 

 the whole the poverty of representatives of the subfamilies 

 Sterninse and Larinse was very noticeable. 



