i6 Bird-Lore 



or another may be of interest to the readers of this article. One is recorded 

 under date of April i, 1876 — the same evening, b^' the way, when young 

 Henry D. Minot, then a bov of sixteen, was elected a resident member. 

 "Mr. Brewster spoke of the nesting of /-*. \^=^Pyrgit^/'\ domestica [now 

 called Passer domesticus'\ in a box on his grounds. The nest at date was 

 apparently finished, but the eggs not laid." 



This was in the early days of the Sparrow invasion ! Two years 

 later, January 28, 1878, a memorable discussion of the "so-called English 

 Sparrow question" was held, in which Messrs. J. A. Allen, Minot, Roose- 

 velt, Ruthven Deane, Brewster, Frazar, and others took part; the evi- 

 dence was decidedly against the bird, and no advocates appeared. The 

 Mr. Roosevelt just mentioned was the same Theodore Roosevelt who is 

 now President of the United States. He had become a member of the 

 Club in the preceding November, and the records show him to have taken 

 an active part in its meetings for some time. Other active members in the 

 early days were Messrs. Allen, Brewster, Deane, and Purdie. 



There are no special requisites for membership in the Nuttall Club 

 beyond a good moral character, a genuine interest in the study of birds, a 

 reputation for accuracy, and those qualities of mind and heart which make 

 a man ' clubable." It is natural that many of the new members should be 

 recruited from that other Cambridge institution. Harvard College, and the 

 freshman age forms practically the lower age limit for admission. There 

 is no limit at the other end of the scale on this side of senility, but natur- 

 ally most of the new members are young men of limited experience in 

 ornithological work. On the other hand a number of the older members 

 have achieved distinction in the scientific world, and thus it comes about 

 that there are really two elements in the Club, though of course no hard 

 and fast line can be drawn between them, and nothing but the best of 

 feeling exists. The very best results come to the individual members 

 from this association of youth and enthusiasm on the one hand and age and 

 experience on the other, but it is easy to see that but little organized work 

 can be accomplished. 



Just how far, therefore, the Nuttall Ornithological Club can be taken 

 as a safe and profitable guide in the formation and management of new 

 bird clubs, it is rather difficult to say. It is obvious that the needs of 

 most such new bodies must be very dififerent from those of an old club 

 composed of men of all ages and of every grade of attainment in 

 scientific study, numbering among its Resident Members seven Fellows, 

 one Corresponding Fellow, six Members, and many Associates of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, and occupying a territory which has 

 been more closely examined ornithologically than any other in this 

 country. The beginnings of the Nuttall Club, too, were at a very dififer- 

 ent period of ornithological history from the present. The earlier meet- 



