68 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ing. He was taken by Mr. Edward Elmer on the hill. Mr. Elmer's 

 attention was called to his canaries by hearing a pounce against the 

 window. Seeing the bird fly to a small tree near by, he took down 

 the cage, carried it out of doors, and held it up in his sight, and, 

 notwithstanding his own presence, the bird pounced upon the cage 

 and was seized while he was clinging to it. 



FOURTH PAPER. 



Portland Daily Advertiser, Jan. S, IS58. 



The occasion was the opening to the public of the new rooms of 

 the Portland Society of Natural History 



Mr. Beckett made statements in reference to the bird depart- 

 ment. The whole number of specimens collected in this department 

 was about four hundred and fifty, but three hundred and thirty of 

 which were mounted. The unmounted birds were mostly from 

 foreign countries. The mounted birds, which included nearly two 

 hundred species, were nearly all representatives of the birds of 

 Maine, and it had always been a leading object of the Society to 

 illustrate the natural history of our own State. 



In his investigations he had ascertained that nearly three hun- 

 dred varieties of birds inhabit or frequent our State — he had arranged 

 and classified two hundred and seventy-six, one hundred and sixty- 

 six of which belong to the class of land birds, one hundred and ten 

 to the water birds — hence it may be perceived that the Society's 

 cabinet embraced about two-thirds of all our State birds. 



He stated that the whole number of species of birds to be found 

 within the limits of the United States and British Dominions of 

 North America was not far from six hundred. Audubon enumer- 

 ated five hundred and eight and supposed he had ascertained all, 

 but quite a number had been added since his great work was 

 published. 



During the last two years the Society had not been able to 

 devote funds to the enlargement of this department, much to his 

 regret, as he had been obliged to forego several rare opportunities 

 for making purchases, which would not be likely again to occur. 



