DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 7 



seen, and the former started on the return journey as the last of the 

 females passed north. The King Eider breeds at Point Barrow around 

 the small ponds on the tundra, using much black moss in the construc- 

 tion of the nests, and but httle down. It is the most common duck of 

 this region, the Black Brant occupying second place. About four thou- 

 sand bird's eggs were collected on the trip, many of which were those 

 of the Snowy Owl, which breeds at Point Barrow in large numbers, as 

 many as sixty nests of this bird being found in one day. Mr. Mcll- 

 henny has counted as many as fourteen eggs and young in one nest to- 

 gether. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg, which 

 would otherwise freeze, and the male takes turns with the female in 

 setting. The male Snowy Owl is almost pure white in the Arctic re- 

 gions, while the females are always barred, the two sexes being thus 

 readily distinguished. During the process of incubation the male is 

 fed by the female, who will bring numbers of Lemmings and place 

 them near him on the ground around the nest. When the young are 

 first hatched they are pure white, afterwards getting darker, and event- 

 ually white again with the acquirement of the full plumage. Short- 

 eared Owls were also taken. Sandpipers were very abundant, and 

 numbers of their eggs were taken. Gray-checked Thrushes and a 

 Myrtle Warbler were shot ; and a Cormorant was taken. The capture 

 of the Rosy Gull during a large migration of Sabine Gulls was de- 

 scribed, tv/o specimens of this rare species being taken on September 

 7th and 9th, and on July 9th another one was shot. Several Yellow- 

 billed Loons were also secured. (See Stone Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila., 1900, pp. 4-49, for full report on the collection). Mr. 

 Mcllhenny told of the hardships endured by wrecked sailors from 

 the vessels of the whaling fleet which were caught in the ice, and 

 spoke of the large supply of ducks which were killed and served 

 them for food as well as specimens. The birds were packed in an old 

 house excavated in the ground, where they would freeze within two 

 hours, and five months afterward, during the dark season, they were 

 worked up into skins at the leisure of the collectors. 



Novei7iber ly, i8g8. — Eleven members present. 



Mr. H. B. Fisher was elected an Associate Member. 



Mr. Stone gave an account of the sessions of the Sixteenth Congress 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union, at Washington, D. C, from 

 which he had just returned, and stated that it was the most success- 

 ful meeting ever held by the Union. A short description of the var- 

 ious papers read was given. Mr. Baily gave a review of the papers 

 not touched on by Mr. Stone, and spoke of the exhibition of lantern 



