Bird Clubs in America 15 



president gave out at each meeting a particular species to form a subject 

 of discussion at the next. Special work of one kind or another has from 

 time to time been undertaken by the Club. About the last of 1887, for 

 instance, a continuous discussion began of the distribution of birds in 

 eastern Massachusetts, groups of species being taken up at each meeting 

 in systematic order. Some years later the desiderata in our knowledge of 

 the life histories of New England birds were discussed systematically in a 

 long series of meetings. These plans for regular work have served good 

 purposes in their day, but the genius of the Club seems to demand as a 

 rule a less formal method of expression, and at most of the meetings the 

 programme consists of a paper or talk by one of the members on some 

 subject that has occupied his attention, followed by a general discussion of 

 the subject, the evening ending with miscellaneous notes from the recent 

 observations of the various members. 



I have spoken of the informality of the Club's meeting, but I will 

 say a word more on that point because I think it is a characteristic feat- 

 ure. There is, of course, some semblance of parliamentary procedure, 

 but members generally feel free to talk directly to one another without 

 the fiction of addressing the chair. One result of this informality is 

 the frank questioning that greets the member who chances for any 

 reason to make a statement which seems to the others at all open to 

 question. It very naturally happens occasionally that an eager young 

 observer may allow his enthusiasm to get the better of his sober judgment, 

 and at such times he must expect to be pinned down to his facts and 

 cross -questioned shrewdly. Only the other day a member of many years' 

 standing spoke of this habit of the Club's, and of an experience of his 

 own in his younger days, when a certain rash statement was met by a 

 fusillade of questions and remarks that was disconcerting, to say the least. 

 He never forgot it, he said, and had ever since been more careful of 

 his ground when addressing the Club. This wholesome custom of friendly 

 catechization is not infrequently spoken of as one of the Club's real 

 services to its members. 



For many years, by the courtesy of its president, Mr. William Brew- 

 ster, the meetings of the club have been held in his private museum, where, 

 amid surroundings which are ideal for ornithologists and where smoking is 

 allowed — and encouraged — the members have come to feel very much at 

 home. The accompanying flashlight picture, taken at a recent regular 

 meeting and without previous announcement, shows a corner of the mu- 

 seum. As some of the most distinguished members were not included, the 

 picture cannot be regarded as one of the Nuttall Club, but only as of a 

 representative meeting of it. 



In the examination which I have been permitted to make of the min- 

 utes of the Club, I have noted a few matters of record which for one reason 



