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July, 1910 EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 135 owners into a single "Messenger-Dille Collec- tion." This combined cabinet contains choicely selected se{s of 682 species and subspecies of North American birds. It is thus one of the largest collections in the United States, and not only this, but the component sets have been selected with extreme care to secure per- fectly prepared and typical representations of each species. Mr. John E. Thayer, owner of the Thayer Museum at Lancaster, Massachusetts, has sent an expedition to Wrangell Island, which lies in the Arctic Ocean northwest of Alaska. The party will winter there, and thus be on the ground at the opening of the spring of 1911. The special object of this quest is the discovery of the eggs of the rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Mr. Thayer will also have a man in the delta of the Mackenzie River at the break of next spring, on the look-out for the breeding places of certain water birds. Mr. C. W. Beebe, of the New York Zoological Park, is now in the far East studying res- ants for a projected monograf of that group. IIe writes us from the Itimalayas under date of May 27 that his party had been camping for a month above tree level as close to Mt. Everest as possible, making studies of drihazenes and Lophop?orus. It is found that the correlation of dry, damp and hunlid climates with pale, dark and irridescent plumages is very promi- nent among the resants, as with many other birds. Mr. and Mrs. Beebe will return home late the coming autum by the way of California. We have learned that the MS of Part V of Ridgway's Birds of North and Middle Amer- ica is approaching completion. Mr. Ridg- way has finisht with the hummingbirds, and is now at work on the trogons. The American Bird Banding Association has been organized in New York City, with Dr. Leon J. Cole as President. The object of this society is "the banding of wild birds and the recording of accurate data on their move- ments." The metal band attacht to a bird's leg, bears a serial number and the inscription "Notify the Auk, New York." Record is kept of the number of each band used, and should the bird ever fall into anyone's hands, it is expected that the fact be reported together with the locality of capture. It is believed that important data bearing on the study of bird migration will thus be obtained. It is highly desirable that this work be carried on at many widely separated points. Persons in- terested and desiring further information or wishing to join the Association, should ad- dress the Secretary, Mr. C. J. Pennock, Ken- nett Square, Pa. Mr. Malcolm P. Anderson writes us from ttan-chung-fu, Shensi, China, under date of February 13, 1910, that his party had crost the Pe-ling, or backbone of China, twice. "This is no great feat," he says, "but in crossing the mountains we have found several excellent collecting grounds and discovered. a consider- able number of new mammals. We are pioneers in the zoological line in the parts we are visit- ing. One of the best collecting grounds I have seen .in China is around a mountain called Tai-pei-san, 13,400 feet elevation, in western Shensi. We found this mountain half by accident, as reports of its whereabouts and the way to reach it were very indefinite. Once found, we campt at its base and made ninny trips up its slopes. Hunting was difficult in places, owing to the extremely slippery sides of the mountain. After arming our straw sandals with huge spikes to aid us in clinging to the snow we finally managed to secure three fine specimens of the 'goat-ox'. Besides this strange beast we got specimens of deer, wild boar, the 'goat-antelope', and a ripping collec- tion of the smaller things." It will be remem- bered that Mr. Anderson, with two English assistants, was sent out by the British Museum a year or more ago, for the purpose of securing mammals in the interior of China. This is known as the "Bedford Expedition." Mr. Anderson expects to return to his home in Cal- ifornia the conling winter. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED THE DISSEMINATION OF JUNIPERS BY BIRDS. By FRANK J. PHILLIPS. Reprint from Fores- try Quarterly, vol. VII, no. 1, pp. 1-16; April, 1910. Definite information on so-called matters of common knowledge is often much needed, but often also vainly sought. In this paper Phil- ips fills a long-felt want with his excellent demonstration of the importance of birds in the distribution of seeds, a topic burdened with much general but very little specific knowledge. He selects junipers as favorable to the study of arian dissemination, since the fruit is rather conspicuous and hangs on the tree a long time. Analysis shows juniper berries to have a high nutritive value, and observation and records from various sources prove that large quanti- ties of them are eaten by birds. Mammals are of slight importance in spreading the seed. In dense natural stands of juniper, birds are said to be responsible for from 60 to 90 percent of the total distribution, and in various locali- ties where junipers are scattered it is shown that the entire reproduction is due to birds. Those who have seen the fence rows of the southeastern states markt with lines of red cedars and the barren, stony fields of certain eastern states dotted with them, will not question 100 percent bird dissemination of juniper. Cedar birds and robins are indicated as the most important juniper distributors. A few names may be added to the. list Phillips gives, of birds the Biological Survey has found to eat juniper berries. They are: for .[u?tiperus,