32 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1332 



project, statements for nearly 95 per cent, of 

 their respective allotments and liave entered 

 into agreement to construct highways which 

 call for about one half of the Federal-aid 

 mone.v. The projects actually completed and 

 paid for are comparatively few, but they are 

 materially exceeded in number by those 

 which are practically completed. California, 

 Delaware, Illinois, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, 

 Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minne- 

 sota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

 North Carolina, Ohio, Oreg'ou, Pennsylvania, 

 Ehode Island, Utah, Washington, TVest Vir- 

 ginia, and Wyoming have each submitted ap- 

 proved jsroject statements for all or nearly 

 all of their allotments. 



THE BREWSTER COLLECTION OF BIRDS 



Announcement is made by the American 

 Museum of Natural History of a gift by Fred- 

 erick F. Brewster, of New Haven. Connecti- 

 cut, of 3,200 specimens of land-birds collected 

 in the "West Indies and South America by 

 EoUo H. Beck, under the direction of Dr. 

 Leonard C. Sauford. A very large part of this 

 material, according; to Dr. Frank M. Chap- 

 man, curator of the department of birds, is 

 new to the museum's collections, and much of 

 it is contained in no other museum in the 

 world. The collection includes 1,500 birds 

 from the West Indies — chiefly the high moun- 

 tains of Santo Domingo, from which little- 

 known area there is included a series of the 

 recently discovered crossbill and Patagonia 

 sparrow, known heretofore only from a few 

 specimens in the National Museum in Wash- 

 ington ; a large series of two distinct new spe- 

 cies, known only in the Brewster collection; 

 and the unique type of a new genus of Goat- 

 suckers. There are also 500 birds from Bahia 

 — of great value, since this is a type locality 

 for many species described by the older writ- 

 ers; and somewhat over a thousand specimens 

 from the extreme southern part of South 

 America, including a representative series 

 from Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Is- 

 lands, from which localities the Museum was 

 wholly without material. 



HAWAIIAN SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS 



Through the generosity of the C. M. Cooke 

 estate the University of Hawaai is to have a 

 marine biological laboratory located in con- 

 nection with Honolulu Aquarium at Waikiki. 

 The last legislature placed the aquariiun in the 

 custody of the university. The laboratory is 

 now in process of construction and will be 

 ready for use by mid-summer. Facilities will 

 be provided for work by visiting scientific men 

 as well as by the students and faculty of the 

 university. Biologists planning to visit Ha- 

 waii and wishing to use the laboratory are 

 advised to communicate with Professor C. H. 

 Edmondson, the director of the laboratory, as 

 far in advance as possible. A teaching fellow- 

 ship carrying a stipend of $750 is open for the 

 nest college year and applications will be re- 

 ceived from graduate students with sufficient 

 training in zoology and botany. 



The trustees of the Bishop Musetun in Hono- 

 lulu and the regents of the University of 

 Hawaii have agreed on the fundamentals of 

 cooperation between the two institutions in 

 scientific investigation and the training of in- 

 vestigators. The general principle of reciproc- 

 ity in the use of libraries, collections, appa- 

 ratus and other facilities is laid down and it is 

 also agreed that graduate students in the uni- 

 versity may, under proper limitations, have the 

 use of the museum and may carry on part or 

 all of their research under the direction of 

 members of the museum staff. Work done in 

 this manner will be counted toward advanced 

 degrees by the university. The plans contem- 

 plate bringing together all systematic collec- 

 tions not required for teaching purposes at the 

 museum. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Cambridge Univeesitt has conferred the 

 honorar.v degree of doctor of laws upon Dr. 

 Simon Flesner, director of the laboratories of 

 the Eockefeller Institute for Medical Research. 



At the centennial commencement exercises 

 of Colby Collie the degree of doctor of laws 

 was conferred on George Otis Smith, director 

 of the Geological Survey, a graduate of the 

 coUege in the class of 1S93. 



