1880. | Notes and News. 283 
Tue first edition of ‘The Birds of Pennsylvania,’ by Dr. B. H. Warren, 
State Ornithologist of Pennsylvania, having been quickly exhausted, the 
Legislature of that State has directed Dr. Warren to prepare a second and 
revised edition of this excellent Manual (see Auk, VI, p. 170), 19,000 
copies of which are for gratuitous distribution to the schools and agri- 
cultural societies of the State. In order to make it as complete and trust- 
worthy as possible, Dr. Warren has already issued a circular to the 
ornithologists of the State, soliciting their codperation in perfecting the 
work. The circular is accompanied by a ‘Provisional List’ of the birds of 
Pennsylvania, with suggestions as to the character of the information 
most desired. With the increased appropriation for the work, and the 
systematic way Dr. Warren has entered upon his congenial task,a much 
more elaborate manual must be the result—one as creditable to the author, 
we have no doubt, as is the liberal policy of the Legislature, toward 
science and the education of the people in ornithological matters, to the 
great State of Pennsylvania. 
The intelligent interestin natural history shown by the State of Penn- 
sylvania is further manifested in an appropriation of $50,000 to the Phila- 
delphia Academy of Natural Sciences for an addition to its museum 
building; and also in placing in the hands of its ornithologist, Dr. B. H. 
Warren, the sum of $3600 for a complete collection of the birds and mam- 
mals of the State. It has also enacted an excellent statute for the pro- 
tection of song and wild birds, similar in general character to the measure 
proposed and advocated by the A.O.U. Committee on Bird Protection two 
years ago. In fact, the passage of so creditable an act is doubtless due 
largely to the efforts and influence of Dr. Warrenand the Chairman of the 
A. O. U. Committee, Mr. Sennett, both of whom have given public ad- 
dresses on the subject of Bird Protection in different parts of the State. 
Further intelligent action in the same general line is the amendment of 
the notorious ‘Scalp Act’ so as to exempt Hawks and Owls from its pro 
visions. 
Some time since (Auk, July, 1886, p. 415) wecalled attention to an an- 
nouncement of a prospectus of a work in the German language on North 
American birds, by Mr. H. Nehrling, an Active Member of the A. O. U., 
and the author of many papers on North American birds, including a 
paper on the birds of southern Texas, published in the ‘Bulletin’ of the 
Nuttall Ornithological Club, and various local lists and popular articles 
in the German ornithological journals. It now gives us pleasure to say 
that the publication of the work has begun, and that it will appear in 
English, under the title ‘North American Birds,’ as well as in German. 
The work will be issued in twelve parts, of 40 to 48 quarto pages each, 
‘‘with 36 colored plates after water color paintings by Prof. Robert Ridg- 
way, of Washington, D. C., Prof. A. Goéring, Leipzig, and Gustav Murt- 
zel, Berlin.” It is published at one dollar per part, by Geo. Brumder, of 
Milwaukee, Wis., the completion of the work being promised during the 
fallof 18g0. We have already received Part 1 of both editions, and find 
it a work we can heartily commend, as a popular treatise on our birds. 
