December 22, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



827 



THE AM E ETC AN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION. 



The twenty-third congress of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union convened in New 

 York City, Monday evening, November 13. 

 The business meeting of the fellows, and 

 public sessions, November 14, 15 and 16, 

 were held at the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History. The final session, Thursday 

 afternoon, was held at the Brooklyn Insti- 

 ,tute of Arts and Sciences. 



Charles F. Batchelder, of Cambridge, 

 Mass., was elected president; E. AV. Nelson, 

 of Washington, D. C, and Frank M. Chap- 

 man, of New York City, vice-presidents ; 

 John H. Sage, of Portland, Conn., secre- 

 tary; Jonathan Dwight, Jr., of New York 

 City, treasurer; Ruthven Deane, A. K. 

 Fisher, Thos. S. Rjoberts, Witmer Stone, 

 William Dutcher, Chas. W. Richmond, and 

 F. A. Lucas, members of the council. 



The ex-presidents of the union, Drs. J. A. 

 Allen and C. Hart Merriam, and Messrs. 

 William Brewster, D. G. Elliot, Robert 

 Ridgway and Chas. B. Cory, are ex-officio 

 members of the council. 



Drs. Allen, * Dwight, Merriam and Rich- 

 mond, and Messrs. Brewster, Ridgway and 

 Stone, were reelected 'Committee on Classi- 

 fication and Nomenclature of North Ameri- 

 can Birds. ' 



Walter K. Fisher, of Palo Alto, Calif., 

 Professor Lynrls Jones, of Oberlin, Ohio, 

 and Wilfred H. Osgood, of Washington, 

 D. C, were elected fellows. Five associ- 

 ates, Dr. Chas. W. Townsend, John E. 

 Thayer, Rev. Wm. Leon Dawson, James H. 

 Riley and Austin H. Clark, were elected to 

 the class known as members, and seventy- 

 one new associates were elected. 



Mr. Witmer Stone had found among the 

 archives of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Sciences, some unpublished letters of Alex- 

 ander Wilson, and the extracts read from 

 them were of historic interest— showing the 

 disadvantages under which this pioneer 



ornithologist labored in his efforts to secure 

 specimens. 



A paper, which evoked much discussion, 

 was read by Dr. J. A. Allen, on ' The Evo- 

 lution of Species through Climatic Condi- 

 tions.' He referred to certain geographic 

 races described from the United States as 

 illustrating the change of plumage and ap- 

 pearance of birds whose distribution cov- 

 ered a wide area. 



Mr. Abbott H. Thayer, the eminent por- 

 trait painter, demonstrated his theory of the 

 protective or disguising coloration of ani- 

 mals. Mr. Thayer has studied this subject 

 from an artist's standpoint and believes 

 ' that every animal which preys upon others 

 or is preyed upon is an absolute picture of 

 its environment at its time of greatest dan- 

 ger.' The elephant, he said, had no need 

 of protective coloration. 



Mr. C. AA^m. Beebe, curator of birds at 

 the New York Zoological Park, spoke of the 

 collection under his charge and referred to 

 many interesting experiments concerning 

 feeding and surroundings, which he had 

 been able to conduct in the park. 



Dr. Thos. S. Roberts called attention to 

 the great destruction of Lapland longspurs 

 in southern Minnesota while migrating, 

 March 13, 1904. A severe (moist) snow- 

 storm occurred at the time and thousands 

 of the birds were killed and injured by 

 striking buildings, telegraph wires and the 

 ice on different lakes. A conservative esti- 

 mate of the number killed was 750,000, but 

 he fully believes that 1,000,000 must have 

 perished. Dr. Roberts illustrated his re- 

 marks with lantern slides, picturing the 

 dead or injured birds as found in the snow 

 in door-yards, parks and on various ponds. 

 No other species appeared to be migrating 

 with the longspurs. 



During the sessions excellent lantern 

 slides from photographs of birds in life 

 were shown by Rev. H. K. Job, and Messrs. 

 Chapman, Bowdish, Baily and Finley. 



