1S84.J Notes and Neivs. 307 



minor papers on tlie birds oi" Canada, he published in 1880 a work in 

 quarto, with pliotographic illustrations, entitled 'Our Birds of Prej.' P'rom 

 1865 to iSSo Mr. Vennor was an assistant on the Canadian Geolo,t(ical Sur- 

 vey. He also took great interest in meteorology, and through his weather 

 predictions acquired no little celebrity as 'the weather prophet.' 



— Mr. J. W. Johnson, of Cleveland, Ohio, has started for Alaska to 

 take charge of the Signal Service Station at Bristol Bay (Nushagak), and 

 make collections of natural historj' for the National Museum. 



— The officers of the vessels of the Greeley Relief Expedition have been 

 furnished by Professor Baird with colored drawings of the Knot (^Tringa 

 canutns), and a request to look out for the eggs of this species, wiiich are 

 still unknown. 



— Capt. Charles E. Bendire, U. S. A., has presented his magnificent 

 collection of North American birds' eggs to the National Museum. Em- 

 bracing as it does extensive suites of the eggs of many of the rarer 

 species, to say nothing of the more common ones, and being especially 

 rich as regards the birds of the Far West, it greatly surpasses any other col- 

 lection of North Anierican birds' eggs yet brought together, and in point 

 of neatness and care of preparation is doubtless unequalled. Capt. Ben- 

 dire has been for some time personally superintending their arrangement 

 at the National Museum. 



— The Fish Commission steainer ' Albatross ' has returned from her 

 cruise among the islands of the Caribbean Sea and northern coast of South 

 America. A small but very interesting collection of birds was made bj- 

 Messrs. J. E. Benedict and W. Nye, embracing several new species, from 

 islands not previously visited by a naturalist or collector. Two fine exam- 

 ples of the Guachera Bird {^Steatornis cartpensis), from Mona Island, 

 were also secured. A report on this collection will be published in the 

 ' Proceedings ' of the National Museum. 



— The A. O. U. Committee on Migration of Birds has now over 650 ob- 

 servers, of which 100 are in Canada. This number is additional to the 

 large number of light-house keepers, also engaged in the work of observa- 

 tion. 



— At the April meeting of the Ridgwaj' Ornithological Club of Chicago 

 a paper by Dr. W.J. Hoft'man, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 

 D. C, on Indian bird names, was read, and also a paper by Mr. H. K. 

 Coale, on the migration of birds in the vicinity of Chicago in the spring 

 of 1883. Albino specimens of Wilson's Snipe and the Cowbird, recently 

 collected in Illinois, were exhibited by Mr. Toppan. At the meeting held 

 June 5, the society was reorganized under its new charter as an incorpora- 

 ted body, and the following officers were elected for the ensuing year : 

 President, B. T. Gault; Vice President and Treasurer, Geo. Frean Mor- 

 com ; Secretary'. H. K. Coale; Curator, Joseph L. Hancock; Librarian, 

 Frank- L. Rice. Mr. Coale read a paper on the Blue Mountain Parrot of 

 Australia, exhibiting specimens of the birds and a set of eggs laid in cap- 

 tivity. 



