^IzL Notes and Nezvs. [July 



Petersburg only forty-seven years old. He was a Professor Ordinarius of 

 Zoology at the Imperial University in St. Petersbing, and a curator of the 

 Zoological museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in that city. 



From 1867 he has been a very prolific writer, and gained for himself an 

 enviable reputation as a bright and painstaking ornithologist. His careful 

 methods, scientific accuracy, and keen power of distinguishing cannot 

 be too highly eulogized in these days of slipshod ornithology, and his in- 

 fluence in these respects upon the younger school of Russian ornitholo- 

 gists is evident on every hand. Unfortunately most of his papers were 

 written in Russian, and are hence inaccessible to most students outside of 

 the great Eastern Empire, but his last work,* destined to be the crowning 

 work of his life, was published in both Russian and French. Of this, 

 however, up to his death only the first part has been published, but it is 

 to be lioped that enough material may be found among his papers to in- 

 sure the completion of this invaluable synopsis of the avifauna of more 

 than one half the circumboreal region. Of his many other works we will 

 onlj' mention his 'Birds of the Caucasus,' and his admirable menioir on 

 the Russian Shrikes. 



Bogdanow was a trinominalist and a 'splitter,' which with his con- 

 scientious and thorough research make his writings particularly useful. The 

 data furnished by him can in most cases be utilized directly, and with him 

 for a guide over unfamiliar ground one feels comparatively safe. Where 

 one's material and specimens give out, Bogdanow's statements are usually 

 of such a nature as to help one out of the difficulty. How fortunate, if we 

 could say the same of most that is written and printed about birds nowa- 

 days !— L. S. 



While the wearing of dead birds, or portions of hem, for decorative 

 purposes has immensely declined in this country during the last two 3'ears, 

 and consequently the destruction of our native bii^ds for such purposes, 

 the barbaric trade in these decorations has by no means come to an end, 

 as witness the following statistics of an auction sale held in London, 

 March 21, of the present year. In a "Public Sale" list of Hale & Son, of 

 Mincing Lane, London, handed us by a friend, w^e find advertised for sale 

 on the above-named date, birds' skins, plumes, wings, and feathers, repre- 

 senting in the aggregate more birds than are contained in all the ornitho- 

 logical collections of this country, including private collections as well as 

 public museums — in other words, hundreds of thousands, in this single auc- 

 tion sale ! Besides about xd.oQO packages and butidles of 'Osprey,' Peacock, 

 Argus and other Pheasants, Ducks, "Paddy," and Heron feathers, we note 

 several thousand mats and hand-screens, while under the head of "various 

 bird skins," we figure up between 7,000 and 8, 000 Parrots, shipped mainly 

 from Bombay and Calcutta, but including some from South America; 

 about 1000 Impeyaii and 500 Argus Pheasants; about 1000 Woodpeckers; 

 1450 "Penguins" (Auks and Grebes.?); some 14,000 Qiiails, Grouse and 

 Partridges ; about 4000 Snipes and Plovers ; about 7000 Starlings, Jays, and 



Conspectus Avium Imperii Rossici. 



