ead Notes and News. 197 
pursued with equal enthusiasm with that of birds, and when he died had 
one of the largest collections of North American Lepidoptera in this 
section. He was a charter member and founder of the Onondaga Acad- 
emy of Sciences, and contributed to it many valuable papers on the birds 
and insects of Onondaga County. He was a great advocate of bird pro- 
tection, and read many papers on this subject before schools and other 
societies. He was gifted with a graceful pen, and his simplicity of style 
made his writings peculiarly attractive. He possessed a singularly 
attractive personality, which endeared him to all; and his honesty, 
modesty, and lofty principles won for him universal esteem.— A. W. 
PERIOR. 
Foster H. BRAcKETT, an Associate Member of the American Orni- 
thologists’ Union, died at his home in Dorchester, Mass., January 5, 
1900, aged, 37 years. He was bornin Fall River, Mass., but his parents 
removed to Roxbury, Mass., when he was a year old, where he received 
his education in the public schools and at a business college in Boston. 
When twenty years of age he entered the banking house of Blake 
Brothers & Co., Boston, with whom he remained till his death. Mr. 
Brackett was especially interested in the study of birds, to which all his 
leisure time was devoted, and had just acquired great familiarity with the 
birds of New England, of which he had made a considerable collection. 
His ornithological publications consisted of a few notes contributed from 
time to time to ‘The Auk.’ His many amiable traits of character had 
won for him a wide circle of friends. A widow, a son and two daughters 
, 
survive him. 
ON JANUARY 4, 1900, the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club cele- 
brated the tenth anniversary of its organization. The meeting was held 
at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the addresses being 
by Mr. Witmer Stone ‘On the History of the Club,’ and by Mr. Wm. L. 
Baily on ‘Ornithological Photography.’ Starting with a membership 
of seven in 1890, with the idea of making combined observations on bird 
migration in the Delaware Valley, the Club has grown to a membership 
of 88. Besides the establishment of regular bimonthly meetings, the 
organization has issued several publications, notably the ‘ Birds of East- 
ern Pennsylvania and New Jersey,’ and has presented the Philadelphia 
Academy with an excellent local collection of birds and nests. It is now 
established on a firm basis, and it is to be hoped it will continue to 
increase the general interest in ornithology in Philadelphia and its 
vicinity, which it has been instrumental in arousing. Among the papers 
read during the year were the following: ‘Probable Breeding of the 
Prothonotary Warbler in Delaware,’ by W. Gordon Smith; ‘The Heath 
Hen in Martha’s Vineyard,’ by H. L. Coggins; ‘Glimpses of Bird Life in 
Mexico,’ by S. N. Rhoads; ‘ Life and Habits of the Clapper Rail,’ by I. 
