414 Notes and News [October 



cheophonine Passeres, has recently appeared. Volume XIII, by Mr. R. B. 

 Sharpe, which includes the Ploceidce, Sturnidre, and the Pseudoscines, 

 and completes the series of volumes on the Passeres (fifteen in number), 

 has also just been issued. The Picarite, it is expected, will occupy five vol- 

 umes (Vol. XVI — XX), several of which are already in course of prepara- 

 tion. Mr. Salvin will treat the Hummingbirds, Swifts, and Goatsuckeis; 

 Mr. Hargitt will prepare the volume on the Woodpeckers; Mr. Sharpe 

 will take the Anisodactylse and Heterodactyhe, and Capt. Shelley the 

 Zygodactyly. Count Salvadori will prepare the volume on the Parrots. 

 Of monographs in course of publication mention may be made of 

 Sharpe and Wyatt's Monograph of the Hirundinidse, now approaching 

 completion; Bartlett's Monograph of the Weaver-birds and Finches; 

 Pelzeln and Madara>z's monograph of the Piprida? or Manakins. Mr. 

 Sharpe has in preparation a monograph of the Birds of Paradise, to be 

 published by So the ran & Co. of London. Mr. Seebohm has in press 'The 

 Birds of the Japanese Empire,' to be issued in one royal octavo volume, 

 and is preparing a monograph of the Thrushes, with colored illustrations 

 of all the species. Mr. Dresser, it is announced, is preparing a supple- 

 mentary volume to his 'Birds of Europe.' 



The readers of 'The Auk' will be pleased to learn that Congress has 

 appropriated $25,000 for carrying on the work of the Division of Eco- 

 nomic Ornithology and Mammalogy for the year beginning July 1, 

 1S90, the appropriation being made specifically "for investigating the 

 geographical distribution of animals and plants." In other words, the 

 indefatigable Chref of the Division, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, may be con- 

 gratulated on having at last realized his hope of establishing in effect a 

 'Biological Survey' of the United States. He has already five trained col- 

 lectors in the field, and is himself at present in east central Idaho super- 

 intending the work of his assistants in this almost unexplored region. 

 During the past year he has established a serial publication under the 

 title 'North American Fauna,' the first and second numbers of which ai ■■ 

 dated October, 1SS9, and the third, August, 1S90. The first two relate 

 entirely to mammals, the last contains two papers on birds and a general 

 preliminary discussion of the life areas of North America, incidental to a 

 special report on 'Results of a Biological Survey of the San Francisco 

 Mountain Region and Desert of the Little Colorado in Arizona,' based on 

 his explorations of last season. The 'North American Fauna' is intended 

 to provide a medium of publication for the scientific results of the investi- 

 gations of the Division, to consist of faunal papers and other technical 

 matter of special interest to naturalists, while the more purely economic 

 results will appear in bulletins and special reports. A fourth number of 

 the 'Fauna,' we understand, is already in press. 



Mr. Jonathan Dvvight, Jr.", finding that he cannot devote his time to 

 the proposed study of the genus Junco, (see Auk, Vol. VII, p. 219) desires 

 that those who contemplated sending material for this purpose will with-. 

 hold it until some future time. 



