April 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



629 



Family Falconid.e. Vultures, Falcons, Hawks, 

 Eagles, etc. 

 Subfamily Accipitrin(B. Kites, Buzzards, Hawks, 



Goshawks, Eagles, etc. 

 Subfamily Falconince. Falcons [including the 



Caracaras]. 

 Subfamily Pandioninos. Ospreys. 



It will be seen that this scheme of 1885 is 

 essentially that of Ridgway (1873-76), the 

 only diilerence being that Pandion was given 

 a somewhat more independent position, easily 

 explained by the fact that the whole, as shown 

 above, was to some extent a measure of com- 

 promise. The Accipitrinse are otherwise 

 identical with Eidgway's Buteoninse contain- 

 ing, as they do, the Old World vultures, the 

 eagles, kites, buzzards, etc. 



I must, therefore, claim for the American 

 ornithologists the honor of having appreciated 

 and followed Eidgway's classification of the 

 Falconiformes for eighteen years. 



The Old World ornithologists, as a whole, 

 it is true, have been lagging behind. Yet, 

 there are noteworthy exceptions. Thus, I 

 would call attention to a very important 

 paper by Mr. P. Susehkin in the Zoologischer 

 Anzeiger for 1899 (' Beitraege zur Classifica- 

 tion der Tagraubvoegel mit ZugTundelegung 

 der osteologischen Merkmale,' Zool. Anz., 1899, 

 pp. 500-518), in which he, three years before 

 Pycraft's work, commends and adopts all the 

 essential features of Eidgway's scheme which 

 his own investigations on forty-four genera 

 corroborate, elaborate and partly correct. 



Leonhaed Stejneger. 



U. S. National Museum, 

 March 28, 1903. 



HOTEL HEADQUARTERS OP THE AMERICAN 

 ASSOCIATION. 



To THE Editor of Science : While traveling 

 homeward after the recent meeting of the 

 scientific association I spent some time, which 

 would otherwise have been hanging heayily on 

 my hands, in studying out a few of the rela- 

 tions indicated by the registered list of attend- 

 ance. This list included 972 names, a num- 

 ber somewhat less than the total registration, 

 but the difference is not great enough, to have 

 anj' impor^tant effect on results. 



The question for solution was this : " What 

 is the meaning of ' hotel headquarters ' ? " 



It has been the custom for a dozen years 

 past to designate some hotel as headquarters. 

 This hotel has been conveniently near to 

 the places of meeting of the sections, and 

 in it the council of the association held their 

 meetings. A majority of the council usually 

 secured their rooms at headquarters, and it 

 was generally understood that the social ad- 

 vantage implied in taking up one's temporary 

 abode with a majority of the most prominent 

 members present was more than an offset for 

 the expense of accommodation at a fashionable 

 hotel. This item of expense is one that is 

 unfortunately more important to most fol- 

 lowers of pure science than to the captains of 

 industry who reap the benefits of applied sci- 

 ence and ' legislative favors.' The hotels 

 have, until recently, been disposed to make 

 such reduction in rates as to constitute an 

 inducement to make hotel headquarters the 

 real headquarters of the association. 



To the rule just named there have been a 

 few conspicuous exceptions, as at the Buffalo 

 meeting in 1896 and the Pittsburgh meeting 

 in 1902. Every hotel proprietor has a perfect 

 right to offer or refuse reduction of rates ; but 

 it is at least desirable that such hotel be 

 chosen as to make it reasonably probable that 

 a large percentage of members will find it 

 advantageous to select the same gathering- 

 place. 



Of the 972 persons whose names were in- 

 cluded in the Washington list under examina- 

 tion 352 were residents of Washington, and 

 hence a trifle over 36 per cent, of those regis- 

 tered are naturally excluded from the body of 

 temporary residents at hotels. The attendance 

 at the largest five hotels is given in the fol- 

 lowing table, where the ' hotel headquarters ' 

 leads the list. 



Arlington 55, or 5.7 per cent. 



Ebbitt 134, " 13.8 " " 



New Willard 27, " 2.8 " " 



Raleigh 24, " 2.5 " 



Oxford 21, " 2.2 " 



261 27.0 



