1 91 9-] Rfccni/ij pu/)/ishe<l Onullioltjgicnl Works. 549 



and incasureraents, and finally the reasons wliy it is so 

 necessary to protect both resident and migratory forms. 



The protection of birds in France is carried out under a 

 convention agreed to by most of the European States, but 

 excluding Great Britain, Russia^ Italy, and the Netherlands, 

 in March 1Q02. This convention was ratified by the French 

 government in 1905, and has the force of law. It is printed 

 in full in the present pamphlet, and is followed by a list of 

 useful birds which are strictly protected and by a second 

 one of harmful or destructive birds which are not pro- 

 tected. 



Palmer on the A. O.U. 



[The Americuii Ornilhdlupst.'s' Union. By T. S. Pahner. Anier. 

 Museum Journ. New York, xviii. 1918, pp. 473-483.] 



In order to make the American Ornithologists^ Union 

 better known among those who are not familiar with it, 

 the Secretary, Mr. Palmer, has Avritten this little sketch 

 of its foundation, present condition, and future aims and 

 objects — what it has done and what it pu'oposes to do. 

 An interesting historical group of portraits of the founders 

 and officers in 1883 including Baird, Elliot, Lawrence, and 

 Coues, and many others, some of whom are still with us, 

 brings back pleasant memories of past friends. 



Porsild on " Savssats.^' 



[On " Sav8sats " ; a crowding of Arctic Animals at Holes iu the 

 sea-ice. \>y Morteu P. Porsild. Geogr. iieview, New York, vi. 1918, 

 pp. 215-228.] 



Savssat (pronounced s'set) is an Eskimo term meaning 

 crowding or oveicrowding, and is used by the natives of 

 Disco Bay in Greenland to denote a phenomenon which 

 occurs occasionally : the ice fiom Baffin Bay gradually 

 closes in and meets the ice at the head of Disco Bay, and 

 large numbers of whales and other animals become enclosed 

 in narrow pools of open water. Finally the animals become 

 entirely frozen in, and the Eskimos reap a rich harvest. 



