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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. lilll. No. 1360 



mastered the imitation of the notes and calls 

 of a large number of birds of many species, 

 both wild and domesticated ones, that it was 

 truly wonderful to witness some of his 

 achievements along such lines. When a flock 

 of crows was flying far overhead, I have seen 

 him call them all down, alighting all about 

 him, all giving vent to those notes they are 

 accustomed to give when one of their kind is 

 in trouble and cawing for help. It was re- 

 markable to note the effect his marvelous imi- 

 tations in this way produced on many kinds 

 of birds in domestication as well as those in 

 natiire. 



E. W. Shufeldt 



FRANZ STEINDACHNER 

 Franz Steindachner, for many years in- 

 tendant or chief director of the Hofmuseum 

 at Vienna, died on December 10, 1919, at the 

 advanced age of 85. His death was due 

 directly to the inability of the Austrian 

 Museum to secure coal to warm any of its 



Steindachner, a student and friend of 

 Agassiz, spent some time at Harvard, about 

 1870, later collecting fishes in California and 

 Brazil. His first systematic paper on the 

 fossil fishes of Austria was published in 1859. 

 From that time until 1914 when the war 

 wrecked his nation, his memoirs on fishes, 

 living and fossil, some 440 in all, appeared 

 with great regularity. These were always 

 carefully prepared and finely illustrated b.y 

 the stone engravings of his most excellent 

 artist, Edward Konopicky. 

 I His last series of papers in quarto dealing 

 with certain fishes of Brazil passed into the 

 hands of the British censor, an obstacle from 

 which but one copy has yet come across. 



Steindachner conferred his attention to 

 faunal work, especially to exact definition of 

 genera and species. The larger combinations 

 he left to less experienced investigators on 

 the principle laid down by Linnaeus. " Tyro 

 novit classes; magister fit species." Within 

 the field as thus limited, no German syste- 

 matist in vertebrate zoology has stood in the 

 class with him. 



When the Imperial government razed the 

 fortifications of old Vienna, the property on 

 the street thus opened, the "Burgring," was 

 sold and with the proceeds three imperial 

 public buildings were erected, the Opera 

 House, Library and the Museum of Natural 

 History. The last was long since placed in 

 Steindachner's charge, but with a wholly in- 

 adequate force, and with little provision for 

 extension. In the fishes, Steindachner had 

 the services of an artist and a preparator, but 

 had to do all the identification and labelling 

 himself, and to pay from his own means for 

 all specimens he felt it necessary to buy. 



In his devotion to his work, he never mar- 

 ried and when I visited him in 1910 he occu- 

 pied humble lodgings in a stone annex to the 

 museum, cared for only by an elderly house- 

 keeper. To the general public he was known 

 as a " Bekanter Fischhenner." To his col- 

 leagues he was one of the most trustworthy 

 and most devoted lovers of knowledge for its 

 ovsra sake. Among the tragedies of the great 

 war nothing is more disheartening than its 

 smothering effect on European science, one 

 feature of which has been the death of this 

 great master in faunal zoology. 



Davto Starr Jordan 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



SIGMA XI AT THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 PENNSYLVANIA 



TirE society of the Sigma Xi of the uni- 

 versity will hold its next meeting in the med- 

 ical laboratory on Wednesday evening, Jan- 

 uary 19. The subject for discussion will be 

 " Wheat; a Study in the World's Food Sup- 

 ply." Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor, professor of 

 physiologial chemistry, will open the discus- 

 sion. Dr. Taylor was one of the advisers of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture during 

 the war and who made several food surveys in 

 Europe for the State Department. After he 

 has made a survey of the subject the discus- 

 sion will be continued by Dr. Clyde L. King, 

 of the Wharton School faculty, who will speak 

 on the situation in the United States. Dr. 

 Ernest M. Patterson, also of the Wharton 



