198 



Bird -Lore 



song came again, sweet and mellow as be- 

 fore ; this time I could plainly see the Jay's 

 open bill and the muscular movements of 

 his throat. I could hardly believe my eyes, 

 -as I had been accustomed to hear only 

 harsh sounds from a Jay's throat. I raised 

 to a standing posture, the Blue Jay flew 

 away. I looked carefully all about, and no 

 other birds were in sight. This Blue Jay 

 remained in the neighborhood all winter, 

 and several times I had the pleasure of 

 hearing his sweet little song. — Frank E. 

 HoRACK, lozva City, lozva. 



To Hunt Southern Birds 



Rockville Centre, L. I., November 9. — 

 O. H. Tuthill and Robert T. Willmarth, of 

 this village, Benjamin Molitor, of East 

 Rockaway, and Coles Powell, of Seaford, 

 started yesterday on a bird skinning and 

 stuffing expedition to the Florida coast. 

 The men went aboard of Mr. Molitor's lit- 

 tle 28-foot sloop, Inner Beach, which is 

 fitted with both sails and gas engine. 



They take the inside route through bays, 

 rivers and canals to Beaufort, N. C. From 

 there on to their destination they will have 

 to take their chances outside on the ocean. 

 The men go to shoot all kinds of water 

 birds, for which there is an unprecedented 

 ■demand this season by millinery manufac- 

 turers. After being killed, most of the 

 birds will be skinned and stuffed roughly 

 with cotton, and every week shipments will 

 be made to New York. 



Mr. Tuthill is an old hand in the busi- 

 ness. The last time there was a large de- 

 mand for birds by the makers of women's 

 headgear, about twelve years ago, he took 

 an outfit to Florida and during the winter 

 shipped 140,000 bird skins to New York.^ — 

 Brootilyu Ea^i^ic. 



[We met Mr. Tuthill in Key West in 

 February, 1892, and heard him state that 

 during a preceding winter his party had 

 killed 130,000 birds for millinery purposes, 

 and the information contained in the above 

 clipping is doubtless, therefore, accurate. 

 — Ed.]^ 



American Ornithologists' Union 



The seventeenth annual congress of the 



American Ornithologists' Union convened 



at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in 



Philadelphia, on November 13, 1899. At 



the business meeting held on the night of 

 that day the following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year : President, Robert 

 Ridgway ; vice presidents, C. Hart Mer- 

 riam aad C. B. Cory ; secretary, John H. 

 Sage ; treasurer, William Dutcher ; coun- 

 cilors, C. F. Batchelder, F. M. Chapman, 

 Ruthven Deane, J. Dwight, Jr., A. K. 

 Fisher, T. S, Roberts, Witmer Stone. Two 

 corresponding and eighty-two associate 

 members were elected. 



The program for the three days' public 

 sessions, on November 14-16, included the 

 following papers ; 



Notes on theFlammulated Screech Owls, 

 Harry C. Oberholser ; Three Years' Mi- 

 gration data on City Hall Tower, Philadel- 

 phia, Wm. L. Bailey ; A Quantitative 

 Study of Variation in the Smaller Ameri- 

 can Shrikes, Reuben M. Strong ; The Hab- 

 its and Structure of Harris' Cormorant, 

 R E. Snodgrass and F. A. Lucas ; Bering 

 Sea Arctic Snowflake {Passcri'na hypcr- 

 borca) on its breeding grounds, C. Hart 

 Merriam ; On the Plumages of Certain Bo- 

 real Birds, Frank M. Chapman ; On the 

 Perfected Plumage of Soynatei-ia sfccta- 

 bilis, Arthur H. Norton ; The Summer 

 Molting Plumage of Eider Ducks, Witmer 

 Stone ; An Oregon Fish Hawk Colony, 

 Vernon Bailey ; Exhibition of a series of 

 field sketches made from absolutely fresh 

 birds, showing the true life colors of the 

 soft parts, mostly in the breeding season, 

 Louis Agassiz Fuertes ; The Sequence of 

 Plumages and Molts in Certain Families of 

 North American Birds, Jonathan Dwight, 

 Jr. ; The Ranges of Ilylocichla fuscescetis 

 and HylocicJila f. salicicola, Reginald 

 Heber Howe, Jr. ; On the occurrence of 

 the Egyptian Goose ( Chcnalopex (Cgyp- 

 ti'aca ) in North America, Frank C. Kirk- 

 wood ; Notes on the Habits of the Great 

 Mexican Swift {Ilcmiprocnc zotjaris), 

 Sam'l N. Rhoads : Further remarks on the 

 Relationships of the Grackles of the Sub- 

 genus Quiscalus, Frank M. Chapman ; 

 Audubon's Letters to Baird — compiled 

 from Copies of the originals kindly fur- 

 nished by Miss Lucy H. Baird, Witmer 

 Stone ; A Peculiar Sparrow Hawk, Wil- 

 liam Palmer ; The Requirements of a Fau- 

 nal List, W. E. Clyde Todd ; Report of 



