49o Correspondence . 



rAuk 

 IJu.y 



CORRESPONDENCE 



A. O. U. Luncheons 



Editor of 'The Auk': 



One of the most pleasant features of our annual meetings is the lunch 

 provided each day by the local committee as it gives those in attendance 

 an opportunity for social intercourse which would otherwise be impossible. 

 Many of our members have long felt the obligation we are under to the 

 Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, the Nuttall Club, the Linnaean 

 Society of New York, the Biological Society of Washington, and the 

 members of various local committees who in the past have so cheerfully 

 and silently contributed to the entertainment fund, but very few of us 

 have fully understood, even with our own experience with the "high 

 cost of living," how great a burden the more recent meetings have proved 

 to the financial resources of our local committees. 



The meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in New York, 

 last May, has shown that the lunch hour can be equally successful if the 

 members pay for their own lunch and the feeling expressed on this point 

 was one of general approval. Some of us, who from our geographical 

 position cannot hope to return the hospitality of our fellow members, 

 feel that on that account we are less embarrassed in suggesting that while 

 the daily lunches be continued as heretofore that each one pay his own 

 share as is already the custom in connection with our annual dinner. 



Toronto, Ontario. W. E. Saunders, 



June 7, 1920. J. H. Fleming. 



[While we feel sure that the several local committees have been only too 

 glad to entertain the visiting ornithologists at past A. O. U. meetings 

 and are quite willing to continue to act as hosts at the luncheons, we 

 realize that there is a more serious factor involved in this, matter which 

 directly affects the welfare of the Union. We must all realize that the 

 influence of the Society would be greater if meetings could be held in a 

 greater number of localities than is now customary, but the local expenses 

 referred to by our correspondents, make it impossible to hold meetings 

 away from the several centers of ornithological activity where there is a 

 large resident membership. Increased attendance at the meetings which 

 is especially desirable, tends further to aggrivate this condition. We 

 therefore feel that Messrs. Saunders and Fleming in their courteous and 

 thoughtful note have opened up the way to an important innovation 

 which may prove a lasting benefit to the A. O. U. 



Editor.] 



