Bird Clubs in America 59 



patrons of Audubon as Spencer and Harris. Reed (architect) had 

 been both associate and rival of Rhoads in birds -nesting escapades at 

 boarding school in his early teens. ' Rhoads (farmer) was, at eight years' 

 stepson and scholar of Morris's aunt, to whose love of nature both owe 

 more than to any other cause the bent of mind which was later shaped 

 by intimate association with each other and with Prof. E. D. Cope, who 

 then lived in Haddonfield, N. J. Trotter (student) was cousin and 

 associate of N. T. Lawrence, an ornithological nephew of George 

 N. Lawrence, and had just left a scholarship at the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences to study medicine. -Stone (the naturalist) had recently 

 taken a scholarship at the Academy and was then unknown to any of us 

 save Trotter. His noble rage for bird lore in particular and for animal 

 and vegetable lore in general seems to have been due to spontaneous 

 generation. Voelker had emigrated to the States some years previously 

 from Germany and was a taxidermist of talent, his father being forester 

 on a large German estate. 



All of us were young men, Morris being the youngest at 23, and 

 Trotter oldest at 30, when the club was organized. 



Several of the members had previously made local observation records for 

 the A. O. U. committee on bird migration, and a more thorough survey of 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia along this line engrossed the Club during the 

 first year. An elaborate summary of this work was prepared by a commit- 

 tee, and Mr. Stone, as editor-in-chief, was delegated to present it to the 

 A. O. U. Congress, soon to be held at Washington, where it was well 

 received and published in 'The Auk.' Previous papers and communica- 

 tions by the members had been published in ' The Auk,' 'American Natur- 

 alist,' etc., as well as reports of Club meetings in the local newspapers; in 

 this way not only encouraging the members to do original and careful work, 

 but attracting others to join the Club, or furnish data and specimens which 

 would otherwise have been lost. Applications for membership increasing, 

 an ' associate ' class was provided for, unlimited in number, the ' active ' 

 membership being restricted to ten persons, who had the sole privilege of 

 voting and holding office. This number has since been raised to fifteen, 

 because of so many associates developing rapidly into first-rate workers. 

 Contrary to the custom of more conservative clubs, our active class is always 

 kept filled by such, it being understood that resignation is in order when 

 any active member lapses into an ornithologically passive state. To insure 

 this elimination of deadwood, the constitution has been so framed as to 

 make it automatic. Associates are restricted to residents in the states of 

 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, and to any person (age 

 limit not defined) who is proposed by an active member, as one with a taste 

 for bird study. Our object in these selections was primarily to add as much 

 young blood to the organization as possible, and to encourage these fellows 



