NOTES AND NEWS. 121 



such information from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the North of England, &c. 

 Any such assistance will be acknowledged if accepted. 



The Rev. H. A. Macpherson's exhaustive " History of Fowling" is, we 

 learn, now virtually finished, and the MS. will go to press as soon as a 

 sufficient number of subscribers (at one guinea each) have sent in their 

 names. It is not intended to serve as a manual of instruction for killing 

 birds, like the excellent works of Sir R. Payne-Gallway and Mr. Abel 

 Chapman. On the contrary, the history of the subject is mainly occupied 

 in furnishing a recondite account of the ruses by which men of different races 

 contrive to trap, net, and snare birds. 



Mr. Robert "Warren follows up his contribution to the June ' ' Irish 

 Naturalist" on "The Terns of Killala Bay" by a paper in the July issue 

 on " The Gulls of Killala Bay." 



To the same periodical Mr. R. F. Hibbert, of Scariff, Co. Clare, contri- 

 butes a note on his identification of the Stock-Dove (Colnmba xnas) in Co. 

 Galway, although the locality is not named. This seems to be the first 

 recorded occurrence on the west coast of Ireland. 



The " Nidologist," quite the most interesting of American magazines 

 relating to natural history, has returned with its editor to its old home at 

 Alameda, California, from whence it will in future be published. The change 

 has thrown its issue somewhat behind, but we have no doubt this will soon 

 be rectified. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, held on June 16th, 

 Mr. P. Chalmers Mitchell read a " Contribution to the Anatomy of the 

 Hoatzin (Opislhocomus cristatus). He stated that from the characters of 

 the alimentary canal, the Hoatzin might be placed either between the Sand- 

 Grouse and the Pigeons, or between the Gallinas and the Cuculidse. He 

 described some interesting individual variations in the condition of the 

 ambiens muscle, and referred to other points in the muscular anatomy. 



No more useful pamphlet could be devised than one which we have just 

 received from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, and which 

 is reprinted from the Yearbook for 1895. This pamphlet treats of the "food 

 habits," and consequently the economical status of " Four Common Birds 

 of the Farm and Garden" (i.e., Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Mocking Bird, 

 and House Wren), by Sylvester D. Judd, and of "the Meadow Lark and 

 Baltimore Oriole," by F. E. L. Beal, the information being based upon 

 an examination of the contents of the stomachs of several hundreds of each 

 species, and being therefore authoritative. Of the four birds treated of by 

 Mr. Judd, the House Wren is found to be the most beneficial and the Cat- 

 Bird the least, while Professor Beal comes to the conclusion that both the 

 Meadow Lark and Baltimore Oriole are " eminently useful to the farmer." 

 Illustrations of all six species are given. The value of such pamphlets u 



