February 3, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



179 



■esting articles and notes on the flora of New 

 England. 



The initial number of the Bulletin of the 

 ■Cooper Ornithological Club of California con- 

 tains a biographical sketch, with portrait of 

 Dr. James C. Cooper, after whom the Club is 

 named. Among the other contributions is one 

 ■on the ' Nesting of the Fulvous Tree-Duck,' 

 showing that this species frequently deposits its 

 eggs in the nests of other species, and also that 

 it is either more prolific than any other duck, or 

 that several females lay in one nest, 28 to 32 

 eggs being found on sevei-al occasions. 



The publication of the Osprey for December, 

 1898, brings this magazine down to date, and 

 we are promised that there will be no delays in 

 the future. The leading article, by E. W. Nel- 

 son, is devoted to a ' Morning with the birds on 

 Mount Orizaba,' and there is an interesting ac- 

 count of the Sea-birds off the New England 

 coast by H. K. Job. A fine plate of blue jays, 

 by Fuertes, closes the number, but this, like the 

 other illustrations, has suffered in the printing. 



The Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission 

 for 1897, Vol. XVII. of the series, is mainly oc- 

 cupied with the papers read at the National 

 Fisheries Congress, held at Tampa, Fla., in 

 January, 1898. Among the other papers are 

 accounts of the Salmon Investigation of the Co- 

 lumbia River Basin in 1896, and of the Salmon 

 Fishery of Penobscot River and Bay in 1895 

 and 1896. 



The February number of TVie Open Court con- 

 tains an article by Professor R. M. Wenley, of 

 the University of Michigan, on the GifFord Lec- 

 tureships, established with an endowment of 

 $400,000, by the late Lord Giflford, in the four 

 Scottish" Universities, for the purpose of en- 

 couraging research in natural theology. In his 

 will Lord GifFord stated that he wished the lec- 

 turers to treat their subject strictly as a natural 

 science — as astronomy or chemistry is treated. 

 The present incumbents of the lectureships are : 

 At St. Andrews, the Hebrew scholar. Profes- 

 sor Wellhausen, of Marburg; at Glasgow, the 

 physiologist. Professor Foster, of Cambridge ; 

 at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Professors Royce 

 and James, respectively, professors of philoso- 

 phy and psychology at Harvard University. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS AND 

 LETTERS. 



The 29th annual meeting of the Academy 

 was held on December 27th and 28th last, at 

 Milwaukee, with the President, Professor C. 

 Dwight Marsh, of Ripon College, in the chair. 



Professor E. A. Birge, Director of the State 

 Geological and Natural History Survey, made 

 a report on the general progress of the Survey. 

 Dr. E. R. Buckley followed with a special re- 

 port on Wisconsin building stones and Professor 

 D. P. Nicholson on lake investigations. Pro- 

 fessor C. R. Van Hise and others urged that the 

 recommendation of the Academy for the con- 

 tinuation and extension of the Survey be pre- 

 sented formally to the Legislature. A com- 

 mittee was appointed for this purpose. 



It was voted as the sense of the meeting that 

 the library of the Academy should be put in the 

 custody of the State Historical Society when 

 the latter should remove its own library to the 

 new building provided for it by the State. The 

 library of the Acadamy has become important, 

 especially in the line of transactions of foreign 

 societies, and it is expected that suitable rooms 

 will be available for it in the new building. 



Mr. Ernest Bruncken, Secretary of the State 

 Forestry Commission, reported on the legisla- 

 tion which the Commission will endeavor to gain 

 the present winter. Three lines of effort will 

 be recommended : (1) to establish a complete 

 corps of fire wardens and efficient supervision 

 thereof; (2) to study conditions of forest 

 growth, both in the forest itself and at experi- 

 ment stations ; (3) to educate public opinion. 



The program of the meeting contained, to- 

 gether with other papers, the following of a 

 scientific nature : 



' Lake temperatures. ' E. A. Birge. 



'Contributions from the histological laboratory 

 of the University of Wisconsin.' W. S. Miller. 



' Further facts in relation to the succession- 

 period of generations.' C. H. Chandler. 



' Lantern Projections of Three Dimensional 

 Curves and Surfaces,' and ' Theoretical Investi- 

 gation on the Motion of Ground Waters — -III, 

 Mutual Interference of two or more Artesian 

 Wells.' C. S. Slichter. 



