200 The American Naturalist [March, 



the wing and tail coverts. The female, longer than her mate 

 in size, is also quite distinct in plumage. A marked reddish 

 dye takes the place of lustrous black. On the head the color 

 is warmer than on the body. The wings are shaded, in some 

 individuals dusky. 



Edoliisoma lenuirostris or Campephaga jardinii (Gould), the 

 Slenderbilled Cuckoo-shrike, is an Australian bird but found 

 also in New Guinea near Port Moresby. It is about a foot 

 long, of a cloudy blue color, excepting on the side face where 

 it becomes black, and on wings and tail which contain rather 

 more black than blue. The outer tail feathers underneath 

 terminate in white. The bill is black and anything but 

 slender. Feet black, eyes brown. 



In 1882 the nest was found by Mr. C. C. L. Talbot in a 

 Eucalyptus tree. It was composed of wiry grasses securely 

 fastened together with cobwebs on the thin forked horizontal 

 branch. The eggs laid in the small shallow depression were 

 ovoid in shape and of a pale bluish gray ground dotted irreg- 

 ularly over with dark brown spots and lines. 

 (To be Continued.) 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 

 — We notice that the project of a National University to be estab- 

 lished at Washington has been again brought up before Congress. 

 Washington has many advantages as a location for a university, and 

 the Methodists and Catholics bave not been slow to take advantage of 

 them. The Columbian University, a non-sectarian institution, is 

 located there. That it devolves on the nation under any circumstances 

 to establish a university there or anywhere else we fail to perceive. So 

 long as institutions of this kind exist either by virtue of State support 

 or private munificence, there is no necessity for the intervention of the 

 Government in this part of the educational field, but there are strong 

 reasons why it should not do so. The financial basis of all institutions 

 supported by congressional appropriations is always precarious. The 

 subsidies are liberal while they last, but changes in the fiscal pol- 

 icy of the Government produce fluctuations in the revenue, and 

 expenditures are varied accordingly. Then the faculty of such an 

 institution would be under bonds to please the congressional majority, 



