JANUARY 19, 1912] 
Pittier, being the only naturalist who has re- 
mained in the field since the beginning of the 
survey. Although much interesting informa- 
tion has been collected, and a great many 
specimens secured, nothing like a complete 
report is ready. 
The party will include Dr. Seth E. Meek, 
formerly of the Bureau of Fisheries, but now 
representing the Field Museum of Natural 
History; Mr. S. F. Hildebrand, of the Bureau 
of Fisheries, who will collect fishes, reptiles 
and amphibians; E. A. Goldman, of the Bio- 
logical Survey, Department of Agriculture, 
who will collect birds and mammals, and 
Professor Charles D. Marsh, of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, 
who will collect and study the microscopic 
plant and animal life of the fresh waters of 
the zone. 
Leaving New York on the steamship 
Panama, they will proceed to Cristobal, Canal 
Zone, their headquarters on the Atlantic 
coast, and there make preparations for a so- 
journ of four or five months in the field. 
The life-areas on the zone will become con- 
fused as soon as the canal is opened and the 
waters of the Pacific and Atlantic watersheds 
are intermingled. It is particularly impor- 
tant on that account, that the present geo- 
graphical distribution of animals and plants 
be recorded prior to that time, and this is 
especially true as regards the life of the fresh 
waters and the sea-coasts. 
The work of the survey is carried on 
through the united efforts of the Smithsonian 
Institution, several of the government de- 
partments and the Field Museum of Natural 
History of Chicago, and the hearty coopera- 
tion of the Panama Canal Commission has 
been an important factor in the success of the 
undertaking. 
As a preliminary of the work already ac- 
eomplished, the Smithsonian has published 
four pamphlets. The first two (Nos. 2015 and 
2053 of the Smithsonian Mise. Colls.) are by 
E. W. Nelson, of the Biological Survey, and 
describe a new humming-bird, a motmot and 
a bird of the genus Pachysylvia. The third, 
by E. A. Goldman, one of the naturalists of 
SCIENCE 99 
the survey, contains a description of a new 
kingfisher. 
Mr. Maxon, of the Division of Plants, Na- 
tional Museum, who accompanied Professor 
Henry Pittier to the Canal Zone last year, has 
published a description of a remarkable new 
fern (Smiths. Mise. Coll. No. 2055). 
After all the new forms of animals and 
plants have been described it is proposed to 
publish general accounts of all the various 
collections and also one or more volumes con- 
taining a summary of the whole fauna and 
flora of the Canal Zone. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
Dr. J. A. ALLEN, curator of mammalogy 
and ornithology in the American Museum of 
Natural History, has resigned the editorship 
of The Auk, and the council of the American 
Ornithologists’ Union, at the recent meeting 
in Philadelphia, chose Mr. Witmer Stone as 
his successor. Simultaneous with Dr. Allen’s 
retirement Mr. Frank M. Chapman resigned 
as associate editor. Beginning in 1876 with 
the initial volume of the Bulletin of the Nut- 
tall Ornithological Club, Dr. Allen guided the 
course of this journal and its successor T'he 
Auk since its establishment in 1884. 
Dr. J. WALTER FEWKES, of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, has been reelected presi- 
dent of the American Anthropological Asso- 
ciation. The next annual meeting of the 
association will be in Cleveland, Ohio, begin- 
ning on December 30, 1912, in affiliation with 
Section H of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science. 
Dr. THEOBALD SMITH, professor of compara- 
tive pathology at Harvard and exchange pro- 
fessor at the University of Berlin during the 
present academic year, delivered his first lec- 
ture on January 8. His subject was “ The 
Relation between Parasitism and Disease.” 
Proressor GrorcGe Grant MacCurpy will be 
the delegate from Yale University to the 
eighteenth International Congress of Amer- 
icanists to be held in London from May 27 to 
June 1, 1912. 
