200 Sczentific Socteties. [April 
itis vocifera) along the New England coast after the storm of November 
27. Mr. Dutcher said that his men at the east end of Long Island re- 
ported large numbers of these birds early in December. 
Fanuary 18, 1889.—Mr. William Dutcher in the chair. 
Mr. John Tatlock, Jr., upon being introduced, made some remarks about 
Prof. W. W. Cooke’s recently published report upon ‘Bird Migration in 
the Mississippi Valley.’ In regard to the chapter on ‘The Relation of 
Migration to Barometric Pressure and Temperature,’ the speaker criti- 
cised Prof. Cooke’s conclusions as being based upon insufficient data. 
Mr. Tatlock finds ground for believing that temperature alone influences 
bird migration, and differs further from Prof. Cooke, who thinks migra- 
tion occurs simultaneously over a wide area, in deeming it largely local. 
In the discussion which followed, Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., mentioned 
the necessity of the use of very full data in reaching conclusions. Mr. 
William Dutcher said that not very much regarding migration could be 
deduced from birds striking light-houses, for the reason that birds do not 
strike on clear nights. A single exception is that of a Greater Yellow- 
legs (Totanus melanoleucus) which struck a Long Island light-house one 
moonlight night. An unexplained fact is that where one bird strikes in 
the spring, twenty strike in the fall. 
Mr. Dutcher read extracts from a letter written by Mr. Austin F. Park, 
Troy, N. Y., regarding Octocorts alpfestris praticola breeding there on 
Green Island. Six, including three young, were taken July 21, 1888, and 
six others, one young just from the nest, on July 28. This is of special 
interest in comparison with the early breeding of the species in the 
western part of the State, as has been repeatedly recorded, as it doubtless 
indicates that the birds rear more than one brood each season. Mr. Dutcher 
also read extracts from the journal of the keeper of Little Gull Island 
light-house, Long Island, which related to the birds seen there from Au- 
gust 16, 1888, to the end of the year. The first Cormorants were noted Sep- 
tember 1. One third of those seen on November 8 were ‘‘the large kind,” 
supposed to be Phalacrocorax carbo. 
Mr. A. H. Hawley read a paper on the birds observed by him in Santa 
Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, California, during the year 1888, and 
exhibited a large number of specimens. 
February 1, 1889.—Mr. George B. Sennett, President, in the chair. 
Mr. Dutcher read a paper by Mr. Newbold T. Lawrence, entitled ‘Long 
Island Bird Notes,’ which will be published later in ‘The Auk’ : he also 
exhibited a singular looking mollusk (4olus pafzllosa), in alcohol, from 
Long Island. 
Dr. George Bird Grinnell presented a paper upon the Rocky Mountain 
Goat (Mazama montana), which will be published in ‘Forest and Stream.’ 
The limits of the range of this animal have never been fully defined by 
any one writer. It isa mammal belonging to the Arctic fauna and only 
found among the high and rugged mountains of the Rockies and Coast 
Range, where the snow lies all the year. The center of its abundance 
seems to be in Western Montana, Idaho and Washington Territories, and 
