BRITISH ornithologists' UNION. 49 



papers should be read and specimens exhibited. A Com- 

 mittee, consisting of tlie Earl of Gainsborough, Mr. Seebohm, 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, Mr. Bidwell, and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, 

 was appointed to consider the advisability of carrying out 

 the proposed scheme. 



I do not recollect that this Committee ever formally met, 

 but the plan of forming an Ornithological Club, which was 

 entirely due to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, was fully discussed 

 among us in the summer of 1892. At first, I confess, I was 

 not much inclined to favour it, but, after talking it over 

 with Howard Saunders, gave it my full adhesion and 

 attended the inaugural meeting which was held at the Mona 

 Hotel, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, on October 5th, 

 1892. Here I was placed in the Chair, Howard Saunders was 

 elected Secretary and Treasurer, and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe 

 Editor of the ' Bulletin," in which the proceedings of 

 the Club were to be chronicled. The Rules of the Club 

 then adopted are given at the end of this " Short 

 History." 



I need hardly add that this movement, which has brought 

 together all the more active workers in our favourite science, 

 has met with most remarkable success. The meetings of 

 the B.O.C. are invariably well attended, and communi- 

 cations on Birds and Bird-life are numerous and embrace 

 every branch of the subject. The 'Bulletin' for every 

 Session since 1892-93 has been issued with perfect regu- 

 larity, and has now reached its twenty-first volume. As 

 will be seen by the List in that volume, more than 

 200 Members of the Union novr belong to the Club. 

 During the 16th Session (1907-8) the total number of 

 attendances at the B. O. C. Avas 374, or, on an average, about 

 44 per meeting. 



Until 1901 the 'Bulletin' of the B.O.C. was reprinted 

 in ' The Ibis.' After that date (that is, From the commence- 

 ment of the Eighth Series) this practice was discontinued, 

 l)eing thought to be no longer necessary. 



In 1904 Dr. Sharpe handed over the Editorship of the 

 ' Bulletin ' to Mr. W. K. Ogilvie-Grant, and Mr. H. F. 



SER. IX. VOL. II., JUB.-SUPPL. E 



