January 18, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



63 



number of short papers to the Comptes rendus 

 of the French Academy, among which those 

 later ones relating to the habits and seed-like 

 fructifications in CalUpteris, Neuropteris, 

 Pecopteris and Sphenopteris are especially 

 noteworthy. His last great work, commenced 

 in 1912 with the collaboration of his son, one 

 showing where his chief interest centered, 

 was entitled " Recherches geobotaniques sur les 

 Forets et Sols fossiles et sur la v^etation et la 

 Flore Houilleres." Influenced by his experi- 

 ence in the fresh-water basins of central 

 France, he was an advocate, albeit an impar- 

 tial one, of the allochthonous origin of coal 

 beds. 



He was elected to the Societe Geologique in 

 1877 and hence was one of the oldest surviving 

 members at the time of his death. He was 

 elected a correspondent of the Institute in 

 botany in the spring of 1885. Throughout a 

 reasonably long life he was actively engaged 

 in mining work and was long a resident of 

 St. fitienne, where he was an honorary pro- 

 fessor in the School of Mines. A few years 

 ago he removed to llalzeville, a suburb of 

 Nancy, where he died on July 22, his death 

 undoubtedly hastened by the untimely fate of 

 his son on the field of battle. 



In Grand'Eury science has lost another ad- 

 mirable representative of the French school. 

 Of a kindly disposition, generous and cour- 

 teous in all his intercourse, well informed in 

 all he wrote, he will be sadly missed among 

 the depleted ranks of paleobotanists among 

 whom he labored for over half a century. 

 With the sorrow of Zeiller's death still heavy, 

 we have now to lay wreaths on the tombs of 

 memory for Grand'Eury, and for his recently 

 departed colleagues — Lignier, of Caen, and 

 Bertrand, of Lille — would that Cuvier were 

 still alive to fittingly pronounce their eloges. 



E. W. B. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



ORNITHOLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN 1917 



It is stated in the Auh that, while war con- 

 ditions have necessarily curtailed activity in 

 various directions and especially in field work. 



the museums have sent out expeditions and 

 special collectors. 



The Museimi of Vertebrate Zoology of 

 Berkeley devoted its attention chiefly to the 

 southwest. H. S. Swarth visited southern 

 Arizona and obtained material for a report on 

 the birds found on the Apache Trail, while 

 Grinnell and Dixon spent some time in the 

 Death Valley region in California. In the 

 north W. E. C. Todd was in the field five 

 months in charge of the Carnegie Museum Ex- 

 pedition to northern Quebec. In tropical 

 America the activity of previous years has 

 decreased with the return of the American 

 Museum Expeditions from South America but 

 one party, comprising Messrs. Miller, Griscom 

 and Eiehardson, spent four months collecting 

 for the Museimi in Nicarauga. In the West 

 Indies, Haiti and San Domingo have been the 

 center of attraction. W. L. Abbott, Eollo H. 

 Beck, and Paul Bartsch visited the islands at 

 different times and each secured some remark- 

 able birds or made substantial additions to our 

 knowledge of the local avifauna. In South 

 America Beebe spent some time at the tropical 

 laboratory near Georgetown, British Guiana, 

 and Beck returned from southern Hatagonia 

 with rich collections of sea birds. From the 

 Orient the American Museum Expedition to 

 China, Yunnan, and northern India in charge 

 of Roy C. Andrews returned after successfully 

 completing its field work, and from Celebes, 

 H. C. Raven sent some valuable collections of 

 birds to the U. S. National Museum. 



In the United States the work of the Bio- 

 logical Survey has been carried on with the 

 usual activity in a number of states. In the 

 south A. H. Howell continued his field studies 

 of the birds of Alabama and Francis Harper 

 visited the Okefinokee Swamp in Georgia and 

 the everglade region in Florida. In the west 

 H. H. T. Jackson began work on a biological 

 survey of Wisconsin and H. C. Oberholser in- 

 vestigated the breeding ground of waterfowl 

 in North Dakota. In Montana E. A. Preble 

 collected in the southeastern part of the state 

 south of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and 

 Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Bailey spent some weeks 

 studying the birds of the Glacier National 



