1SS4.I Meeting of I lie Atnrricd/i OrnillioJogisIs (hi/on. 37 S 



The Committee 011 Fauniil Areas beinj^ called on, the Chair- 

 man. Mr. Allen, presented a report of proii^ress. He stated that 

 tlie territory of North America had been divided into districts, 

 each of which had been assigned to a member of the Committee 

 to work np, as follows: (i) To Dr. C. Hart Merriam had been 

 allotted Alaska and British North America sonth tf) the St. Law- 

 rence River, and the tier of States bordering the Great Lakes. 

 (2) To Mr. Arthur P. Chadbourne, New England, and the Brit- 

 ish Provinces sonth of the St. Lawrence. (3) To Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher, the States east of the Mississippi River south of the 

 Ohio, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (4) To Dr. 

 E. A. Mearns, U. S. A., the great interior, from the Mississippi 

 westward to (and including) Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona. (5) 

 To Mr. L. Belding, the Pacific Coast region, or the territorv 

 west of Dr. Mearn's district. The plan of the Committee con- 

 templates the graphic representation, by means of colored maps, 

 of the distribution of each species of North American bird, in a 

 way not onlv to show the extent of its distribution in North 

 America north of Mexico, but also its breeding, winter, and 

 migratorv ranges, by means of different tints on the same map. 

 All data obtainable from publislied works are to be fully utilized, 

 and these then supplemented by new data freshly gathered, 

 through personal exploration on the part of the members or by 

 correspondence with local obsei^vers. Fortunately for the Com- 

 mittee, the Chairman stated, a plan of cooperation had been 

 agreed upon between this Committee and that on the Migration 

 of Birds, whereb}' an important contribution of new data would 

 soon become available, the Chairman of the Migration Commit- 

 tee having requested his numerous observers to send in a bt-iefly 

 annotated list of all the birds occurring at each observer's station, 

 for the purpose of turning over the same to the Committee on 

 the Distribution of Birds. The final results of the Committee's 

 work will include not only an extensive series of maps, but a 

 textual report, and a generalized map illustrative of the Faunal 

 Areas. 



Dr. Sclater being called upon, as a distinguished student of the 

 geographical distribution of animals, for remarks, said that he 

 was glad to know that North America, which he knew as the 

 Nearctic Region, was being w^orked in so thorough a manner. 

 The subject was one of great interest, and he thought the 



