The whale-headed stork is still so little known that there is nothing in these contradictions that ought to surprise us. Authors are no more in accord on the subject of the affinities of this strange bird. Gould claims that it presents the closest affinities with the pelican and is the wading type of the Pelicanidae. Verreaux believes that its nearest relative is the adjutant, whose ways it has, and that it represents in this group what the boatbill represents in the heron genus. Bonaparte regards it as intermediate between the pelican and the boatbill. If we listen to Reinhurdt, we must place it, not alongside of the boatbill, but alongside of the African genus Scopus. The boatbill, says he, is merely a heron provided with a singular bill, which has but little analogy with that of the balaeniceps, and not a true resemblance. The nostrils differ in form and position in those two birds, and in the boatbill there exists beneath the lower mandible a dilatable pouch that we do not find in the balaeniceps. An osteological examination leads Parker to place the balaeniceps near the boatbill, and the present classification is based upon that opinion. The family of Ardeidae is, therefore, divided into five sub-families, the three last of which each comprises a single genus. Ardeidae.--Ardeineae (herons). Botaurineae (bitterns). Scopineae (ombrette). Cancomineae (boatbill). Balaenicepineae (whale-headed stork). All the whale-headed storks that have been received up to the present have come from the region of the White Nile; but Mr. H. Johnston, who traveled in Congo in 1882, asserts that he met with the bird on the River Cunene between Benguela and Angola, where it was even very common. Mr. Johnston's assertion has been confirmed by other travelers worthy of credence, but, unfortunately, the best of all confirmations is wanting, and that is a skin of this magnificent wader. We can, therefore, only make a note of Mr. Johnston's statement, and hope that some traveler may one day enrich our museums with some balaeniceps from these regions. The presence of this bird in the southwest of Africa is, after all, not impossible; yet there is one question that arises: Was the balaeniceps observed by Mr. Johnston of the same species as that of the White Nile, or was it a new type that will increase this family, which as yet comprises but one genus and one species--the _Balaeniceps rex_?--_Le Naturaliste_. * * * * * THE CALIFORNIA RAISIN INDUSTRY.