'202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



SECOND DAY — Morning. 



The meeting was called to order at nine o'clock on the morning 

 of Jan. 23d by the President, and at his request Mr. Kellogg opened 

 the meeting with prayer. 



ORNITHOLOGY. 

 BY A. L. CUMMINGS. GALENA. 



'• I pray thee know me when we meet again." 



This request for identification in the case of birds is far more 

 easily made than observed. So much practical difficulty is experi- 

 enced l)y those studying the habits of living birds, in the identifica- 

 tion of different species of the same genera ( not to speak of varieties 

 of the same species), that the announcement, some years since, of a 

 forthcoming treatise by means of which plain farmer boys would be 

 able to recognize and classify all our familiar birds, excited great 

 interest. No doul>t a treatise might l)e written affording great aid 

 in this direction, and it is much needed. 



The difficulty, of course, does not lie in the direction of those 

 familiar birds whose characteristics are so plainly marked that the 

 comparison is less one of resemblances than of contrasts. Many 

 'of these need but appear to l)e immediately recognized. The 

 robins, bluejays, blackbirds, bluebirds, catbirds, and many others 

 Avhose names will at once occur to us, are not liable to be mistaken 

 by any one wherever seen: while the sparrows, quite as familiar as 

 those, range through gradations of size and color from the little 

 chippy that gathers crumbs in our dooryards. to the swamp sparrow, 

 one of the largest and most distinctly marked of this large family. 

 Many of those properly classed as finches and buntings also bear 

 such marked resemblance to some of the sparrows as to further in- 

 crease the difficulty of recognition. 



We hope it will be borne in mind that we are speaking of living 

 birds, of which we get but passing glimpses, or at best, a somewhat 

 distant view of them while at rest. Could we handle them, and care- 

 fully note the technical distinctions, as we do the cabinet specimens, 

 most of our difficulties would disappear; yet even in the collections 

 there are instances '' where doctors disagree '' as to the place to which 

 individual specimens should be assigned. Many slight differences 

 have been made the foundation of new varieties, or even new s})ecies, 

 which other ornithologists, equally learned, insist are but individual 

 peculiarities, rejecting the new name and classification altogether. 

 Other ornithological differences are still undecided, of which we will 



