Ornithological Co ng ress. 6*2 5 



arrival of some of the commoner migrants, the Swallow in 

 particular, and the conclusions arrived at therefrom. The 

 meeting was brought to a close by Mr. Scherren's paper on 

 the first Bird-List of Eber and Peucer. 



In the afternoon, meetings of Sections I. and III. were 

 held : in the former Mr. Pycraft lectured on " Nestling Birds 

 and their Relation to Evolution," and suggested that a careful 

 study of nestlings tended to shew that all birds were at one 

 time arboreal and nidifugous,and that they had diverged in two 

 directions, those nesting on the ground having become still 

 more nidifugous, while among those that still nested in trees 

 the young had become further specialised and more helpless. 

 In this Section also Padre Schmitz read a paper on the Birds 

 of Maderia ; and other communications of technical interest 

 were made by both Count and Freiherr von Berlepsch. 



In Section III. the members were treated to what was 

 perhaps, from the popular point of view, one of the greatest 

 treats of the Congress, by the exhibition of a beautiful series 

 of slides, taken and prepared by Mr. Frank Chapman, of 

 Flamingoes and Pelicans at their breeding-quarters in the 

 Bahamas and Florida respectively. The details in the life- 

 history of these species elucidated and explained by these 

 splendid series of slides are invaluable and also an object- 

 lesson in what may be accomplished by time, energy, and 

 perseverance. 



In the evening; a Conversazione was held at the Natural 

 History Museum, which was well attended by the members 

 as well as by a number of specially invited guests. 



Thursday was, by the kindness of the Hon.W. Rothschild, 

 spent at Tring. The event of the day was his lecture on 

 " Extinct and vanishing Birds," illustrated by the marvellous 

 collection contained in the Tring Museum ; and, to make 

 the exhibition as complete as possible^ Mr. G. E. Lodge 

 had produced a wonderful picture of the small Dinornis, 

 and Mr. Frohawk life-size reproductions of the Moa, 

 the Giant Rail (Leguatia), and the Solitaire. The paper, 

 which was read in the Victoria Hall, was divided by 

 the lecturer into three heads : birds already extinct, those 



