220 Notes and News. [^ 



The celebration was accompanied by an exhibition of Darwiniana 

 (published works, portraits, and letters of Darwin), and specimens illus- 

 trating various aspects of the evolution of animals and plants, living and 

 extinct, arranged in fifteen categories, with reference to as many special 

 features of evolution. The exhibition remained on view from February 

 12 to March 12, and formed an attractive as well as instructive display. 



As everybody knows, or has had the opportunity of knowing, the 

 Roosevelt Expedition to Africa is not merely a hunting trip for the grati- 

 fication of the big-game aspirations of an ex-President of the United 

 States, but a thoroughly organized expedition in the interest of the 

 United States National Museum and of science. The money for its 

 equipment and maintenance, beyond the personal expenses of its chief, 

 has been raised by subscription through the efforts of the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and the personnel has been chosen from the 

 leading experts in field work. The personal interest of Theofdore Roose- 

 velt in natural history research is well known, and in Major Edgar A. 

 Mearns, a Fellow and one of the Founders of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, and an ornithologist and mammalogist of demonstrated ability, 

 he has a medical adviser and a scientific assistant that ensures energetic 

 and intelligent work. Edmund Heller and J. Alden Loring are collectors 

 of wide experience and exceptional ability. Under such conditions, 

 barring accident or illness, the results of a year's work in British East 

 Africa by such a staff should be of the greatest scientific importance 

 and bring to this country a greatly needed collection of the leading forms 

 of the vertebrate life of a region at present poorly represented in American 

 Museums. We are sure the expedition will have the hearty good-speed 

 of every reader of this journal. 



The Avicultural Society of California has begun the publication of a 

 bimonthly official magazine, called 'Bird News,' " devoted to the interests 

 of the bird fancier." Volume I, No. 1, for January-February, 1909, 

 consists of eight octavo pages of well printed and well edited matter 

 pertinent to the interests it represents. Editor, Frederick W. D 'Evelyn; 

 Business Manager, W. W. Cooley, 717 Market St., San Francisco, Cal. 



The Spring announcement of new books by Henry Holt and Company 

 contains 'Birds of the World,' by F. H. Knowlton and Robert Ridgway, 

 with illustrations in color. $7 net. — The Houghton, Mifflin Company 

 announce 'Birds of the Boston Public Garden, a Study in Migration,' 

 by Horace Winslow Wright, with an introduction by Bradford Torrey. 



