522 Notes and News. Loct. 



work, will be issued early in 1912, and subsequent volumes at intervals 

 of about nine months, each volume consisting of about 300 pages and of 

 from 25 to 30 plates." 



At the Annual General Meeting of the British Ornithologists' Union 

 held May 10, 1911, it was voted: "That the Committee [ = Council] 

 consider it desirable that a new edition of the Union's List of British Birds 

 be prepared, and that a Special Committee be appointed with a view to 

 preparing the same." It was further voted that the President (F. Du Cane 

 Godman), the Editors (P. L. Sclater and A. H. Evans), and the Secretary 

 (J. Lewis Bonhote), Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Mr. H. E. Dresser, Mr. W. 

 Eagle-Clark, and Dr. N. F. Ticehurst, be requested to act on this Com- 

 mittee." The original B. O. U. 'List of British Birds' was published in 

 1883, three years before the first edition of the A. O. U. Check-List was 

 issued, or twenty-eight years ago. The new edition doubtless will be 

 awaited with great interest not only by British ornithologist, but by 

 ornithologists at large. 



A Committee of the Linnaean Society of New York has recently taken 

 over the work of tagging birds for future identification as an aid in studying 

 the migrations and other movements of birds, and in further prosecution 

 of the work has issued the following explanatory circular : 



New York, September 18, 1911. 

 To all Members of the A. O. U.: 



You are probably aware of the existence of the American Bird Banding 

 Association, which was organized in 1909 to encourage the marking of 

 individual wild birds for the purpose of recording accurate data on their 

 movements. The method employed is the placing of inscribed metal 

 bands on the legs of any birds, young or old, that can be captured unhurt, 

 and setting them free again with the realization that if ever the bird should 

 be recovered a definite knowledge of its travels would be obtained. 



The great value and ultimate possibilities of the scheme have been well 

 set forth in the Teports already published (Auk, XXVI, April, 1909, pp. 

 137-143, and Auk, XXVII, April, 1910, pp. 153-168); and great credit 

 must be accorded the Committee formerly in charge for the splendid 

 results achieved. The members of that Committee, however, by reason 

 of pressure of other duties, and of being distantly separated from one 

 another, have been unable of late to give the attention they desired to the 

 American Bird Banding Association, and have expressed a wish to have 

 this work placed in other hands. The Linnaan Society of New York, 

 having the advantage of a centralized membership, and of the American 

 Museum of Natural History as a bureau for the return and keeping of 

 records, tendered its services, which were accepted. 



Only by the cooperation of a large number of ornithologists in the task 

 of bird marking can real advance ever be made in solving many of the 



