CO Fourth Meeting- of the American Ornithologists' Union. [January 



to look to the west, and saw a large number of Buzzards, more 

 than two miles away, crossing a line back and forth, from north 

 to south ; and I soon discovered that they were coming eastward. 

 It did not occur to me that they were tracing the tract of tainted 

 air from that pot full of putrescence. I kept quietly about my 

 business and the Buzzards kept about theirs ; and in less than 

 twenty minutes from the time I first discovered them, they were 

 on hand, wheeling about that woodshed. They were fiftv or 

 sixty strong. They staid around during an hour or two, when 

 they gave up the search and left for other parts. Here was, 

 therefore, a cone of tainted air, with its apex in that pot. It was 

 drifted rapidly to the west, rising at an exceedingly low angle. 

 The Buzzards crossed that cone back and forth so accurately 

 that I could mark its limits almost exactly. Now there is no 

 possible hypothesis applicable to the solution of these Buzzards' 

 actions, but that they smelt that stench more than two miles. 

 I might give many other notes on this matter, but I deem this 

 perfectly apropos and convincing. 



I have great regard for Mr. Audubon, Mr. Bachman, and Mr. 

 Darwin, for what they have well done ; but, in a series of exper- 

 iments for ascertaining a great scientific fact, that these men 

 should so blunder, and so falsely reason, is to me certainly 

 astonishing. In attacking their conclusion, in this case, I feel 

 that they are merely human. 



FOURTH MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ORNI- 

 THOLOGISTS' UNION. 



The fourth meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union was 

 held at the National Museum in Washington, November 16, 17, 

 and 18, 1SS6. The number of members in attendance was about 

 the same as at previous meetings, namely, about twenty Active 

 Members and thirteen Associates. The official report ot the 

 Secretary stated that but a single death had occurred among the 

 members during the past year, — that of Mr. Snowdon Howland, 

 of Newport, R I., an Associate Member, well known as an 



