106 



THE OSPREY. 



ing were read. The banquet opened with an address 

 by the President, Mr. A 1. McCormick. 



Following this papers were read as follows : ' Bul- 

 lock's and Arizona Hooded Orioles' by F. J. Illing- 

 worth, 'Details of the Nesting Habits of the Black 

 Phoebe' by F. B. Jewett, 'The Rhinocerous Auklet ' 

 by Joseph Grinnell, and 'The Spring Migration of 

 1896' by Horace A. Gaylord. A unanimous vote of 

 thanks was extended Mr. and Mrs Daggett for their 

 royal entertainment of the Division. — Publication 

 Committee. 



[The Southern Division report failed to reach The 

 OspREV in time for the February-March "Cooper 

 Club Number." Some of the above mentioned articles 

 will appear in future numbers of The Osprey. — Ed.] 



CALIFORNIA NOTES. 



EDITED BY DONALD A. COHEN, ALAMEDA. GAL. 



The Schooner sent to the Gallapagos Islands eight 

 months ago by Baron Rothschild of London and the 

 Frank B.Webster Company returned to San Francisco 

 early in February with a large cargo of natural his- 

 tory specimens. 



Duck shooting in the vicinity of San Francisco 

 Bay has been unusually good lately, the toothsome 

 Canvas-back being well represented. 



The first Townsend's Sparrow noted this winter 

 about .Mameda, to my knowledge, was brought to 

 me February 14th by a boy who had caught it in a 

 trap. 



My first record of Spliyrapiciis nibdr for Alameda 

 County was taken at Alameda, February 12th, by 

 me. 



Western Robins have lately appeared sparingly. 

 I copy the following notes from my note book, cover- 

 ing occurrence of Varied Thrush and Western Robin 

 this winter for Alameda and vicinity: Nov. i, one 

 Robin and one Varied Thrush seen ; Dec. ig, several 

 Robins seen ; Jan. 4, one female Robin seen ; Jan. 

 15, one Robin seen singly and a passing flock of 

 about 35 birds remained a few minutes while on a 

 journey ; Jan. 22, one Robin heard : Feb. 5, about 10 

 Robins seen ; a few seen and heard calling and sing- 

 ing for a week past ; Feb. 8, one female Varied 

 I'hrush seen, and about 25 Robins flying high in the 

 air at 5 p. m. on the nth, and a few have been seen 

 and heard daily up to date, Feb. 14. This winter 

 both species have been exceedingly scarce and they 

 usually appear about October and become common 

 bv December. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MICHIGAN 



CLUB. 



Lansing, Mich , Dec 17:— The meetings were 

 held in the Senate Chamber in the Capitol Building. 

 In the absence of the President Mr. L. Whitney 

 Watkins was appointed chairman After the reading 

 of minutes and the rendering of the reports of the 

 Treasurer and Librarian for the past year, the re- 

 mainder of the afternoon was spent in discussing in- 

 formally the interests and prospects of the Club, and 

 several committees were appointed to meet and 

 report later with regard to the condition of the Club, 

 and to propose any changes that might suggest them- 

 selves. At half past five the meeting was adjourned 

 to meet again at seven-thirty o'clock. 



Evening Session : — The evening was devoted en- 

 tirely to the reading and discussion of papers. The 

 first was on ' The Rapid Disappearance of our Birds 

 of Prey,' by Mr. Percy Selous of Greenville, and was 

 an able defense of the Hawks and Owls of Michigan, 

 which was read by Mr. Read of Grand Rapids, in 

 the absence of the author. 



Mrs. Kelsey next read a short paper written by 

 Miss Mabel Bates of Traverse City, in which was 

 put forth the 'Work of the Junior Endeavor in 

 Michigan Toward the Protection of Birds. ' 



Prof. Barrows followed this with an instructive 

 paper on 'The importance of the Local Collection.' 



'The Manner of Nesting of some North Dakota 

 Water Birds' was the title of a most interesting arti- 

 cle by Mr. Edwin S. Bryant, who is a resident of 

 Michigan, but who has been doing much collecting 

 in the west. Among other things, Mr Bryant men- 

 tioned finding nests of the White-winged Scoter ; this 

 he believes to be the first record of the nidification 

 of this bird within the United States. He exhibited 

 nests and eggs of the American Golden-eye, Blue 

 winged Teal, Pintail, White-winged Scoter and 

 Shoveler to illustrate his paper. 



The fifth paper was by Mr. T. L. Hankinson, and 

 was entitled 'Our Grebes ' Mr. Hankinson men- 

 tioned the taking of a specimen of Holbcell's Grebe 

 {^Colyiiibiis Iiolliallii) by himself at Pine Lake, Ingham 

 County, October 30, iSgy. 



The programme was concluded by a paper on 

 The Butcher Bird,' written by Dr Gibbs and rtad- 

 by Mr. W. A. Hayden of Jackson. 



Dec. 18; — In the morning a short business meet- 

 ing was held in parlors of the Hotel Downy to com- 

 plete the unfinished business of Friday afternoon. 

 Officers and committees for the following year were 

 elected. The editorial staft of the 'Bulletin' were 

 elected as follows : Editor-in chief, L. Whitney 

 Watkins; associates, T. L Hankinson, Percy Selous 

 and Miss Frances Margaret Fox ; managing editors, 

 W. E. MuUiken and L. J. Cole. 



It was decided that the next annual meeting shall 

 be held in Detroit. 



It was moved that a committee of three be appointed 

 to revise the constitution and to report at the Janu- 

 ary meeting. L. J. Cole, T. L. Hankinson and D. 

 A Seeley were appointed on this committee. Messrs. 

 Watkins and Hankinson were appointed to draw up 

 resolutions upon the protection of Michigan birds, 

 these resolutions to be spread upon the minutes of 

 the Club and to be printed in the Bulletin.' 



Mr. Watkins, Mrs. Kelsey and Miss Mabel Bates 

 were appointed a committee to confer with Mr. 

 Stone of the American Ornithologists' Union to see 

 what steps can be taken towards joining with them 

 in the interests of bird protection. 



The remainder of the forenoon was spent at the 

 Agricultural College in looking over the College 

 Museum. 



In the afternoon a short session was held at the 

 College, and the following papers were read : 'The 

 Passenger Pigeon in the Early Days of Michigan,' 

 by Percy Selous ; Characteristic Motions of Birds,' 

 by Claude H. Barlow ; and ' A Generation of Ornith- 

 ologists,' by Dr. Morris Gibbs. 



During the latter part of the afternoon the mem 

 bers returned to Lansing, and upon the kind invita- 

 tion of Mayor Davis, .spent the remainder of the day 

 in looking at liis artistic collection of mounted mam- 

 mals and birds, and Audubon's Birds of America, of 

 which Mr. Davis has two complete sets. 



Leon J. Cole, Senctary. 



