Notes from Field and Study 



195 



attached to a black walnut at the edge of 

 of a grove of these trees, and placed 

 among the limbs some ten feet above 

 ground. We very much hoped that a 

 pair of Bluebirds, which soon examined 

 it, remaining several days, would settle 

 down to family life. 



The English Sparrows were very 

 impudent, coming by the score, and no 

 doubt were the chief cause of the sud- 

 den departure of the Bluebirds. 



There followed a pair of Red-headed 

 Woodpeckers, after enlarging the mouth 

 of the nest a bit; a home and family duly 

 followed. At Mr. Adams' place all the 

 boxes were occupied — one by a Chickadee, 

 one by a Wren that reared two families, 

 at least. Redheads and Flickers took the 

 rest. No Bluebirds came. Other varie- 

 ties of birds in the neighborhood seemed 

 more familiar because of the presence 

 of these nests and occupants, such as 

 Cardinals, Goldfinches, Grosbeaks, and 

 Thrushes. None of these, however, took 

 any type of the von Berlepsch boxes. — S. 

 R. TowNE, Omaha, Neb. 



Thirty-second Annual Congress of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union 



The Thirty-second Annual Congress of 

 the American Ornithologists' Union was 

 held in Washington, D. C, April 6-8, 

 1914. 



At the Business Meeting of Fellows, 

 held at the Ebbitt House on the evening 

 of the 6th, the following officers were 

 elected: President, Dr. A. K. Fisher; 

 Vice-Presidents, Henry W. Henshaw and 

 Dr. Witmer Stone; Secretary, John H. 

 Sage; Treasurer, Dr. Jonathan D wight, 

 Jr.; Councillors, Ruthven Deane, Wil- 

 liam Dutcher, Joseph Grinnell, F. A. 

 Lucas, Wilfred H. Osgood, Dr. Charles 

 W. Richmond, Dr. Thomas S. Roberts. 



There being no vacancies in the list of 

 Fellows, no election for fellowship was 

 held. The following were elected Members: 

 Egbert Bagg, Utica, N. Y.; Dr. Thomas 

 Barbour, Cambridge, Mass.; Robert 

 Thomas Moore, Haddonfield, N. J.; 

 Robert Cushman Murphy, Brooklyn, 



N. Y.; John Treadwell Nichols, New 

 York City. 



Twenty-five Associates were elected, the 

 small number being due to the short time 

 which has elapsed since the annual meet- 

 ing of 1913. 



The public sessions of the Congress, 

 which were held at the United States 

 National Museum, were attended by 

 nearly one hundred members of the 

 Union, twenty-six of these being Fellows. 



The Congress of November, 1913 hav- 

 ing afforded opportunity for reports on 

 recent ornithological studies, the pro- 

 gram was, in consequence, comparatively 

 limited. It contained, however, several 

 papers of much interest, and some which 

 developed considerable discussion. Par- 

 ticularly was this true of a paper on the 

 comparative numbers of our insectivorous 

 birds. 



While the difficulty of making anything 

 like exact comparison of present with 

 past conditions was recognized, the 

 speakers on this subject were agreed that 

 insectivorous birds were far more com- 

 mon now than they could possibly have 

 been at the time of the settlement of 

 this country; a fact which is made evi- 

 dent by comparing the small numbers of 

 birds found in remaining areas of primeval 

 forests with those which exist in farming 

 regions, where the diversity of conditions 

 furnished by meadow, orchard, wood-lot, 

 crops of various kinds, etc., afford homes 

 and food for a great variety of birds. 



The speakers also agreed that in their 

 respective experiences, extending over 

 from twenty to thirty years, no appre- 

 ciable change in the numbers of insec- 

 tivorous birds, as a whole, had been 

 observed. Local conditions, some of 

 which were apparent, others obscure, had 

 occasioned the decrease of some species, 

 while others had increased; and the loss 

 on one hand was about balanced by the 

 gain on the other. 



The members of the Union and their 

 friends were entertained daily at luncheon 

 by the Washington members. The Annua 

 Subscription Dinner, which was largely 

 attended, was held on the evening of the 7th. 



