NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 



The pages of the Bulletin have been so crowded recently 

 that it has not been possible to chronicle the work of the 

 Natural History Society. Two meetings have been held each 

 month, one of an entirely informal character devoted to re- 

 ports of field work and descriptions of birds of the current 

 season, the other an open meeting with a lecture on some 

 subject of general interest associated with birds. These lec- 

 tures have been given by Mr. Sass as follows: November, 

 Birds of Prey; December, Feathered Fishermen; January, 

 Birds of the Past. All of these have been illustrated with 

 specimens and lantern slides, while the .last was rendered 

 especially interesting by Dr. Wilson's very appropriate verses 

 which we print below for the benefit of our readers. 



The open meeting in March was devoted to discussion of 

 the birds which were seen on the excursion of February 22, 

 in which nearly every member of the Society participated. 

 Through the courtesy of a friend of the Museum the trip was 

 made on a large and comfortable launch so that it was possi- 

 ble to invade the haunts of both water and land birds. The 

 eagles, cormorants, herons, etc. , were new to many of the 

 party and the excursion aroused much enthusiasm. 



Field trips to the Navy Yard or other convenient localities 

 can be arranged for almost any Saturday by telephoning the 

 Museum in advance. For those who cannot go into the 

 country the city affords a more interesting field for bird ob- 

 servation than is generally supposed, as our growing list of 

 city species shows. The dates of arrival of summer residents 

 are desired for the city as well as the country and all mem- 

 bers of the Society should report the first date on which they 

 observe the Chimney Swift, Rain-crow, Beebird, Orchard 

 Oriole, Nonpareil, Summer Tanager, etc. 



31 



