Sept., 1919 
death of William Brewster, which occurred 
on July 11. Here was a man who was him- 
self a student of scholarly attainments; he 
made many contributions to the permanent 
literature of ornithology. And also, being a 
man of some means, he was able to, and did, 
during his lifetime, advance in a material 
way the interests of other workers and in- 
stitutions in this field. Now, by his will, as 
MaJorR Epwarp A. GOLDMAN, NOW IN CHARGE, DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL INVES- 
TIGATIONS, UNITED STATES BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Fig. 45, 
we learn from the Boston Transcript, he 
leaves to the Museum of Comparative Zoolo- 
zy, Harvard University, all of his large and 
exceedingly valuable collection of birds, to 
the same institution an endowment fund of 
$60,000, to the American Ornithologists’ Uni- 
on $2000, and to the Nuttall Ornithological 
Club $2000. There are many other bequests, 
but the above serve to show Brewster’s deep 
devotion to the scientific study of birds. 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
With regard to Judge Ed Wall’s article 
which appears elsewhere in this issue we 
fear the writer, in common with not a few 
other bird students, has an erroneous idea as 
to what constitutes a “record” in the annals 
of natural history. In our belief, not until 
publication, when made available to any dil- 
igent seeker for knowledge anywhere in the 
world, does any fact or set of facts reach the 
dignity of a true record. The facts Judge 
Wall now makes known, and which estab- 
lish the nesting of the Wilson Snipe in 
southern California, are immensely import- 
ant. But no one could possibly be held to 
account for ignorance of facts stored only 
in the memory or notebooks of one or a few 
persons. 
