526 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 353. 



Driver had passed through the song seasons 

 and had a well-established song formula of 

 their own, I obtained a brood of Baltimore 

 orioles wliich I believed to be about six days 

 old. The birds were secured at South 

 Orange, N". J. , a point several hundreds of 

 miles from the birthplace of my original 

 birds, Timmy and Driver. I shall distin- 

 guish these birds, when speaking of them, 

 as the brood of 1897. They were reared in 

 the same way that the other orioles had 

 been, except that they had the society of, 

 and were closely associated during their early 

 lives with, the two older orioles. 



The moults occurred at the same intervals 

 that I have indicated, and by the winter of 

 1897-1898 I was able to distinguish the 

 sexes of my four new birds by the charac- 

 teristics that correlate with sex. Three 

 were males and assumed full nuptial plu- 

 mage by a partial moult in late January 

 and parfe of February. The fourth bird was 

 a female. 



On my coming to live in Princeton when 

 these 1897 orioles were about seven weeks 

 old, they, as well as Timmy and Driver, had 

 an especial room given over to their use, and 

 from that time on the birds knew little or 

 nothing of cage life. 



After the spring or, rather, late winter 

 moult of 1898, Timmy and Driver began to 

 sing as they had done in the two previous 

 years. At this time friends, good field 

 ornithologists, familiar with the conven- 

 tional song of the Baltimore oriole, heard 

 them both sing, and not having up to that 

 time seen the birds, were at a loss to identify 

 the song as being like anything they had 

 ever heard. 



Soon after Timmy and Driver began to 

 sing, the 1897 birds one by one joined, and 

 in a month all were singing a song not to 

 be distinguished from that of the two older 

 birds. They outlived Timmy and Driver a 

 year or more and always sang as I believe 

 they had been taught by older birds of their 



own kind. In short, only six orioles have 

 ever sung this song, for I pursued the ex- 

 periment no farther, other matters inter- 

 fering. 



My conclusion is that two birds, isolated 

 from their own hind and from all birds, but with 

 a strong inherited tendency to sing, origi- 

 nated a novel method of song, and that four 

 birds, isolated from wild representatives of their 

 own kind, and associated with these two who had 

 invented the new song, learned it from them 

 and never sang in any other way. 



William E. D. Scott, 

 Curator of Ornithology. 



Princeton University. 



THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 



The Botanical Society of America met in 

 business sessions in Room 4 of the High 

 School Building, Denver, Col., August 27 

 and 28, 1901, and presented its scientific 

 program in joint session with Section G of 

 the A. A. A. S. in the same place on Au- 

 gust 28. The Presidential address on ' The 

 Problems and Possibilities of Systematic 

 Botany,' by Professor B. L. Robinson, was 

 read by Dr. J. M. Coulter. The following 

 program was presented : 



' The Fundamental Phenomena of Vegetation ' : F. 



E. Clements. 



' The Physical Basis of Ecology ' ; F. E. Clements. 

 ' A System of Nomenclature for Phytogeography ' : 



F. E. Clements. 



' The Plant Formations of the Rocky Mountains ' : 

 F. E. Clements. 



' Early Winter Color of the Plant Formations of the 

 Great Plains ' : C. E. Bessey. 



' The Anatomy of the Embryo and Seedling of Tsuga 

 Canadensis CsLTT ' (by invitation) : W. A. MURRILL. 



' Clues to Eelationships among Hetercecious 

 Plants ' : J. C. Arthur. 



' The Thermal Relations of Vegetation ' : D. T. Mac- 

 DOUGAL. 



' The Application of Ecology in Taxonomy ' : F. E. 

 Clements. 



' Some of the Changes now taking place in a For- 

 est of Oak Openings ' : W. J. Beal. 



' The Life-History of Viitaria Lineata ' : E. G. 

 Britton and A. Taylor. 



