I02 PROCEEDINGS S. I. ASS'n ARTS AND SCIENCES. [V'OL. I 



southeast and disappeared in the mist. We had this one in sight 

 probably about five minutes. 



We were still running for the beach when young- Morris called out 

 "There is another one." So there was. This one was a repetition of 

 the previous one, although we saw more of it, and it was more perfect. 

 By perfect I mean more perfect in shape. When you are in an eighteen 

 foot boat half a mile from shore with eighteen or twenty feet of water 

 between you and the bottom, no water spout can be perfect. The last 

 spout disappeared also to the southeast. 



We put the boat ashore and waited on the beach for the weather to 

 clear a bit, and then ran home through the Kills. 



I saw afterwards in the papers that the spouts had done much damage 

 to fishing craft in the Shrewsbury region and that considerable loss of 

 life had attended them. 



The phenomena were discussed by Mr. Howard H. Cleaves, who 

 remarked on the damage done by the hail to the windows of the S. S. 

 White Dental Works at Princes Bay and to windows of a railroad train 

 standing at Princes Bay station. Mr. Cleaves stated that the hailstones 

 were irregular in shape, flattened, about three-quarters of an inch in 

 diameter and composed cf a nucleus of white ice with clear ice on the 

 exterior. A supply was collected and utilized for household purposes 

 by filling an ice box with them. 



Mr. James Chapin exhibited a number of bird skins and read the 

 following paper: 



AN ORNITHOLOGICAL REVIEW OF THE WINTER OF igo6-07. 



The bird-life of the vicinity of New York during the past winter 

 has been doubly interesting; first, because of the mild weather in the 

 early part of the season, and secondly, on account of the occurrence of 

 several irregular winter visitants, namely, pine grosbeaks, Pinicola 

 eniicleator canadensis (Cab.), white-winged and red crossbills, Loxia 

 leucoptera (Gmel.) and L. curvirostra minor (Brehm.) redpolls, Acanthis 

 linaria (Linn.), and pine finches, Spinus pinus (Wils.). 



The warm weather in the months of November and December, 1906, 

 - and most of January, 1907, besides delaying the departure for the South 

 of some summer and transient birds, was also accountable for the 

 occurrence, in the middle of winter, of a few others. 



Some late records for birds passing Staten Island in the fall migration 

 are as follows: 



