Notes and News
The American Ornithologists’ Union will hold its seventy-fourth annual meeting in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, September 4 to 9, 1956.
Of international interest to ornithologists are certain actions recently taken with respect to names of birds by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. To achieve a compromise between European and American usages and contentions, the generic name Gavia was accepted for the loons (divers) and the generic name Colymbus was suppressed for the grebes, P&ice@ being ,accepted in its stead. Also the following well known generic names were validated (older homonyms suppressed) : Bubo, Coturnix, Egretta, Oriolus. The generic name GaUiaugo was accepted for the snipes in place of CupeUu. Names of Linnaeus published in 1776 in Edwards’ Natural History were suppressed for technical reasons, thus making unnecessary certain unfortunate name changes for North American birds.-A.H.M.
At the recent annual meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society held in Seattle, Washington, the following papers were presented on June 15: Under Water Locomotion of the Dipper, by William R. Goodge; Spatial and Seasonal Variations in Distribution of Sea Birds in the Gulf of the Farallones, California, Howard L. Cogswell; United States Fish and Wildlife Program in the Pacific Northwest, Stanley G. Jewett; Seasonal Distribution of Waterfowl Population Loss, J. Burton Lauckhart ; Comparative Anatomy of the Leg Muscles of Gallinaceous Birds, George E. Hudson and Patricia J. Lanzillotti; Foraging Behavior and Hind Limb Structure of Towhees, John Davis; Natural History of Oregon (evening motion picture), Kenneth L. Gordon.
On June 16: The Incubation of the Yelloweyed Penguin, Donald S. Farmer; Temperature Regulation of Nestling Terns and Nighthawks, Thomas R. Howell; the Effect of Ecologic Tolerance on Speed of Microevolution of Birds and Mammals, Alden H. Miller; Pictorial Survey of the Native Hawaiian Birds, R. L. Pyle; History of One Hundred Nests of the California Gull, William H. Behle; Distribution and Migration of the Black Rosy Finch, Norman R. French ; Color Variation among Nestling Nighthawks, Eben MCMillan and John E. Taft; Bird Behavior 1, especially of Kittiwakes], Niko Tinbergen.
Field trips to Protection Island and to Mount Rainier proved highly successful and pleasurable.
The meetings were sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Bird and Mammal Society and the University of Washington on the occasion of the summer meetings of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
