September 1, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



James Dewar, Sir Archibald Geikie, Professor 

 H. x\. ]\[iers, Sir Henry Roscoe and Dr. 

 Sclater. The coordination of the work of the 

 various local committees had been carried out 

 under the direction of the central organizing 

 ■committee for South Africa, sitting at Cape 

 Town, consisting of Sir David Gill (chair- 

 man) and Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist (secretary). 

 An additional expenses fund having been 

 opened to supplement the subvention of £6,000 

 from the South African colonies, contribu- 

 tions amounting to £3,100 had been received. 



The following agreement has been made 

 between the British Association and the South 

 African Association in the matter of financial 

 arrangements respecting the annual meeting 

 in 1905: (1) That all members (but not asso- 

 ciates) of the South African Association shall 

 be entitled to associates' tickets at the meeting 

 of the British Association in South Africa in 

 1905; (2) that the South African Association 

 shall pay a contribution of £500 to the funds 

 of the British Association; (3) the South 

 African Association guarantees the purchase 

 of a thousand copies at least of the annual 

 volume, the copies to be sent direct to the 

 members of the South African Association on 

 paymeiit to the British Association by the 

 South African Association of the sum of 8s. 

 per copy. 



A committee of the council, consisting of 

 Professor G. H. Darwin, Sir A. Geikie, the 

 general secretaries and the general treasurer, 

 was authorized to consider the appointment 

 of an assistant secretary, in succession to 

 Dr. Garson, resigned, with the result that 

 Mr. A. Silva White was unanimously ap- 

 pointed to fill that office. 



The books and other publications presented 

 to or received in exchange by the association, 

 with the exception of the publications of the 

 corresponding societies of the association and 

 the annual volumes of reports of the various 

 Associations for the Advancement of Science, 

 have been transferred to the Library of Uni- 

 versity College, Gower Street, the council of 

 University College having undertaken to give 

 the same facilities to members of the British 

 Association for the use of University College 



Library as were granted under similar cir- 

 cumstances by the University of London. 



The council also reported on a plan for 

 dealing with the meteorology of the British 

 colonies and the relation of the association to 

 corresponding societies. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The American Anthropological Association 

 is meeting this week at San Francisco under 

 the presidency of Dr. Frederic Ward Put- 

 nam, of Harvard, University and the Univer- 

 sity of California. The preliminary program 

 contains the titles of thirty-nine papers, which 

 proves that the anthropologists at least can 

 hold an unusually successful meeting in the 

 summer and on the Pacific Coast. We hope 

 to print subsequently abstracts of the papers. 



Mr. W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., director of the 

 scientific and technical department of the 

 Imperial Institute; Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S., 

 chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, and Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 

 director of the National Physical Laboratory, 

 have been elected members of the council of 

 the British Association. 



The regents of the University of California 

 have granted a year's leave of absence to 

 Professor Wm. E. Ritter, of the department 

 of zoology, for research at the San Diego 

 Marine Biological Station and travel abroad. 

 Associate Professor Charles A. Kof oid will 

 have charge of the department in his absence. 

 Mr. C. O. Esterly, Mr. L. Griggs and Dr. Alice 

 Robertson have been appointed assistants in 

 zoology. 



Mr. George K. Cherrie, of the Museum of 

 the Brooklyn Institute, has just returned from 

 South America, where he has been collecting 

 for that institution. He obtained about 800 

 bird skins representing very fairly the avi- 

 fauna of the region about Ciudad Bolivar, 

 Venezuela. These include a fine series of the 

 Hoatzin, together with nests and eggs of that 

 bird; skins and skeletons of the Guacharo 

 bird, and skins of a number of species of 

 South American herons. From the observa- 

 tions of Mr. Cherrie, it seems probable that the 

 breeding of the hoatzin is largely infiuenced 



