188 The American Naturalist. [February,. 
Little Yellow Rail (Porzana noveboracensis) was mentioned, not as be- 
ing rare, but as seldom collected, probably on account of its small size 
and skulking disposition, 
The paper was illustrated by specimens of the species spoken of be- 
longing to the Academy and Mr. Woodruff. 
FRANK Č. BAKER, Secretary.. 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
It will be of interest to Botanists and Zoologists to learn that a Bio- 
logical Survey of Alabama has been organized and put into operation- 
The Survey will be carried on under the auspices of the Alabama Poly- 
technic Institute, and will be named by the specialists engaged at that. 
institution in the various lines of biological investigation. It will have 
for its object the study in field and laboratory of all plants and animals 
occurring in the state and of the various conditions effecting them. 
The work will be done systematically and thoroughly and all results 
published. In a region so interesting and little worked as this portion 
of the Southern United States, careful and extended research will be 
sure to yield results of the greatest value. Large quantities of material 
in all groups of plants and animals (especially insects) will be collected 
and properly prepared. In connection with the Survey there has been 
founded an Exchange Bureau, from which will be distributed all dupli- 
cate material. Anyone desiring to correspond relative to specimens, 
literature, or work of Survey, should address The Alabama Biological 
Survey, Auburn, Alabama. 
The New Monthly Open Court—With January, 1897, the Chicago 
Open Court celebrates the decennial anniversary of its nativity 
and more consonantly with the solid character of its contents now 
appears in the form of a monthly instead of a weekly. Undoubtedly 
this change will gain more than ever the attention of thoughtful people 
for The Open Court, which is devoted to the high ideal of purifying 
religion by the methods employed in science,—an aim which it has 
always reverently but fearlessly pursued. 
In the ten years of its existence The Open Court has gained the 
hearty co-operation of a majority of the world’s most eminent scientists 
and thinkers, both orthodox and unorthodox. The subscription-pricè 
