BRITISH ornithologists' UNION. 21 



refer the decision of the matter to a meeting to he held at 

 Camhridge in the following ISovcmber. 



In accordance with this agreement a meeting w^as held in 

 Professor Newton's rooms at INlagdalene College, Cambridge, 

 on Wednesday, November 17th, 1858. It is much to be 

 regretted that no formal account of this important meeting 

 can be found, if anything of the sort was ever drawn up, 

 of which I am by no means certain. But, to the best of 

 my knowledge and belief, the following resolutions were 

 discussed and adopted at that meeting : — 



1. That an "Ornithologists' Union'' of twenty Members 



should be formed, with the principal object of 

 establishing a new Journal entirely devoted to Birds. 



2. That Lt.-Col. H. ]\I. Drummond should be the 



President and Professor Newton the Secretary of 

 the Union, and that I (P. L. Sclater) should edit the 

 Journal. 



Neither the exact title of the proposed Journal nor the 

 Publisher were settled on this occasion, but these matters 

 Mere left to ])e decided subsequently by Prof. Newton and 

 myself. 



I cannot state positively who were present at the 

 inaugural meeting at Cambridge ^^ but shorth^ after mv 

 return to London (where I was then resident at 49 Pali 

 Mall, with law-chambers at Lincoln's Inn) I received from 

 Newton a list of the twenty Members of the Union, as 

 finally decided upon, in his own handwriting. 



It will be seen by the facsimile of this List^ of which a copy 

 is given herewith, that some slight alterations and additions 

 were made to it by the " Editor " in his own handwriting. 

 These, however, were agreed to by the " Secretary," and 

 the List is virtually the same as that printed in the first 

 volume of our Journal in 1859. 



On returning to London after the Cambridge Meeting 

 I lost no time in making arrangements for beginning the 



* I can oiily say with certainly that (besides Newton and myself) 

 Simpson, WoUev, F. I). Godmau, and Sahin were present; I think 

 Edward Tavlor and Tristram were also there. 



