CHAPTER V 



THE ISIS 



FOR some years it had been the custom for a number of 

 naturalists, most of them members of the University of 

 Cambridge, and all of them interested in the study of 

 Ornithology, to meet together once a year or oftener, for 

 the discussion of various topics and the exhibition of 

 objects of interest. These " conferences," as they were 

 called, were highly appreciated by those who attended 

 them, and in the autumn of 1857 at the meeting which 

 was held (as usual) in Newton's rooms at Cambridge, it 

 was suggested that it would be advisable to establish a 

 magazine devoted solely to Ornithology. In the following 

 year a number of ornithologists met at the British 

 Association meeting at Leeds, when they decided to meet 

 again at Cambridge in November and discuss the question 

 of the magazine. Accordingly a meeting was held in 

 Newton's rooms at Magdalene on November 17, 1858, 

 when the following resolutions were adopted : 



1. That an Ornithologists' Union of twenty Members 



should be formed, with the principal object of 

 establishing a new Journal entirely devoted to 

 Birds. 



2. That Lt.-Col. H. M. Drummond should be the 



President and A. Newton the Secretary of the 

 Union, and that P. L. Sclater should edit the 

 Journal. 



No official record of the meeting was made, but it 

 seems to be fairly certain that eleven people were present. 



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