1SS4.J Notes and Nezus. 205 



measure that is incoinmensui-able witli others, incongruous in itself, and 

 fast becoiuing obsolete? 



The founding of the American Ornilhologists' Union marks tlie com- 

 mencement of a new era in American Ornitiiology. It is about to estab- 

 lish a stable nomenclature, based upon sound principles, and carried out 

 with painstaking and impartial thoroughness. Let it also advocate, and 

 let its organ 'The Auk," demonstrate, that American ornithologists aban- 

 don the baibaious scale of their forefathers and join the men of science of 

 all nations in adhering to a system of weights and measures that is uni* 

 form throughout the world, and whose simplicity and convenience are not 

 among the least of its recommendations. 



C. Hart Merriam, M. D. 

 Locust Grove, N. Y. * 



[Our correspondent's presentation of the advantages of the metric sys- 

 tem and its claims for adoption is not only timely but so fully covers the 

 ground that little need be added in its further advocacy. To the greater 

 part of the present generation of American ornithologists the proposed 

 change will be attended with more or less inconvenience, but should 

 nevertheless be promptly assented to and heartily adopted, in the interest 

 not only of science, but above all for the convenience of our immediate 

 successors. The metric system is presented in our school text-books, and 

 quite generally taught in our public schools; it is, as Dr. Merriam states, 

 the system already most generally employed in science the world over, 

 being used exclusively by the leading scientific writers in all departments 

 of science, including even zoology. To make the transition period as 

 brief as ma}' be, it is desirable that the change be promptly and generally 

 made; and to this end we would urge all contributors to the pages of 

 'The Auk' to give their measurements in the metric system. — Eds.] 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Hard upon the letter in which Professor Hermann Schlegel honored 

 the A. O. U. by accepting Foreign Membership of this Association — a letter 

 written alie7io matiu, in consequence of fading eyesight — comes to us the 

 sad news of his death, removing one of the world's great ornithologists 

 Professor Schlegel died on the 17th of January at the age of 79, having been 

 for some twentj-five years the Director of the Royal Museum at Leyden, 

 and for half a century one of the most active and prominent of European 

 workers in science. He is probably best known in this country by the 

 numerous volumes entitled 'Museum d'Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas,' in 

 which are set forth the great riches of the Lej-den collection, in the direc- 

 tion of -which he succeeded Temminck on the death of the latter in 185S. 



