Notes and Comments. 5 



COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS. 



We are glad to find that the Hull Museum, which recently 

 seems to have been largely devoting its attention to local 

 antiquities, is shewing evidence of a desire to illustrate natural 

 history. It has recently secured two fine collections of birds, 

 viz., the Fortune and Sir Henry Boynton collections. The 

 first was formed by Mr. Riley Fortune, F.Z.S., and consists 

 of a very fine series of Yorkshire specimens, including many 

 rarities. The second is the well-known collection formed by 

 the late Sir Henry Boynton. This consists of an unrivalled 

 series, and has for many years been exhibited in the large room 

 at Bvirton Agnes Hall. Through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Wickham Bo3-nton, this set, numbering over two hundred 

 large cases, has been placed in the Hull Museum, where it 

 will be much more covenient for reference. Practically all 

 the specimens were shot by Sir Henry himself, and they are 

 excellently mounted. As these two collections alone represent 

 something like 2000 square feet of exhibition space, and the 

 museum was already over-crowded, we presume it is the inten- 

 tion of the authorities at Hull to shortly increase the size of 

 their museum. 



PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD, M.A., F.R.S. 



At the unanimous invitation of the Executive Committee 

 of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, Professor A. C. Seward, 

 M.A., F.R.S. , etc., has accepted the position of President of 

 the Union for 1910. Professor Seward is lecturer in Botany at 

 the University of Cambridge, and is the author of numerous 

 important works of Palseobotany, including ' Fossil Plants a 

 • Test of Climate ' ; ' The Wealden Flora,' 2 vols. ; ' The Jurassic 

 Flora,' 2 vols. ; ' Fossil Plants for Students,' etc , and he is 

 also the joint author with Mr. Francis Darwin of ' More Letters 

 of Charles Darwin.' In connection witii the recent celebrations 

 at Cambridge, he edited a magnificent Darwin Memorial 

 Volume, which we have already referred to in these columns. 

 Professor Seward's work amongst the fossil plants in the 

 Jurassic rocks of North-East Yorkshire is well known, and 

 doubtless his address to the Union, which will be delivered at 

 the close of his year of office, will contain much of interest to 

 Yorkshire botanists and geologists. 



Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, the eminent ornithologist, of the Natural 

 History Department of the British ]Museum, died on Christmas Day. 



igio Jan. i. 



