FIELD TRIPS OF THE CLUB 

 Week end at Branch ville, N. J., May 21 to 23 



This twelfth nature outing at Branchville was attended by 

 over one hundred members and friends of the club. On Friday 

 evening the group assembled in the recreation hall of The 

 Pines to listen to Dr. Henry B. Kummel, Director of the De- 

 partment of Conservation and Development of New Jersey, 

 describe the geological formations of north-western New 

 Jersey, from the Pre-Cambrian of at least 700,000,000 years 

 ago down to the glacial deposits of the Quaternary of less than 

 35,000 years ago. Mr. H. Harmsted Chubb, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, showed a beautiful series of plant 

 and bird pictures from the Catskill Mountains, describing inti- 

 mate details of the lives of the birds shown. Saturday morning 

 most of the group were up at five thirty to go on the bird trips 

 led by Mr. and Mrs. Chubb and Mr. Evans. Other bird trips 

 were taken during the day Saturday and on Sunday morning. 

 A total of over eighty species were seen. For the second year in 

 succession a nest of the American Bittern was found at the edge 

 of the swampy area below the ridge on which The Pines is 

 located. On the bird trip to Culver Lake Sunday morning the 

 party saw close together Wilson's, Wood, Olive-backed, and 

 Grey-cheeked Thrushes and the two water thrushes, while at 

 another point all of our swallows — Barn, Eve, Rough-winged, 

 Bank and Tree — were seen. Geological trips were led by Dr. 

 Kummel on Saturday and Sunday, the last to High Point where 

 in panorama the mountain ridges and valleys are shown for 

 many miles and much of the geological history of the region can 

 be visualized. 



Dr. Forman T. McLean of the New York Botanical Garden 

 led trips for the study of trees and flowering plants, and Mr. 

 George T. Hastings, trips for flowers and general nature study. 

 Saturday evening Dr. McLean showed a large number of colored 

 slides of our local trees, describing them and their relationships. 

 Mr. Hastings outlined the life of Linnaeus, an appropriate sub- 

 ject, as Sunday was the 230th anniversary of the birth of the 

 first great botanist and the day on which thousands of his en- 

 thusiastic followers for years made botanical excursions in his 

 memory. 



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