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Bird- Lore 



Hopping or flying about with them were 

 several of those handsome birds the Lark 

 Sparrows and more of the Linnets, and 

 White-crowns were flying about in seem- 

 ingly utter abandon, their various call notes 

 making a veritable bird -babel. Farther 

 away, at the top of an elderberry tree, sat a 

 California Shrike — silently and quietly 

 minding his own business. " Cha-Cha- 

 ChS," in a quick, scolding voice, pro- 

 claimed that a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was 

 foraging in my trees; a dainty Anna's 

 Humming-bird whizzed by my window, 

 stopping long enough to sip fearlessly at 

 the flowers that grew beside me; while 

 above all else rang out the liquid, inspir- 

 ing notes of a Mocking-bird. 



Surely here was a gathering which repaid 

 a half-hour's stay at my open window. — 

 Harriet Williams Myers, Los Angeles, 

 Cal. 



Twenty-third Annual Congress of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union 



The twenty-third Congress of the Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists' Union was held at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, November 13-16, 1905. At the 

 business meeting of Fellows, on the night 

 of the 13th, Charles F. Batchelder was elected 

 president of the Union, E. W. Nelson and 

 Frank M. Chapman, vice-presidents, John 

 H. Sage, secretary, and J. Dwight, Jr., 

 treasurer. 



The Fellows elected were: Walter K. 

 Fisher, Palo Alto, Cal. ; Lynds Jones, Ober- 

 iin, Ohio, and Wilfred H. Osgood, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. The five Members elected 

 were: Austin H. Clark, Boston, Mass.; 

 W. Leon Dawson, Seattle, Wash.; J. H. 

 Riley, Washington, D. C. ; JohnE. Thayer, 

 Lancaster, Mass.; Charles W. Townsend, 

 Boston, Mass. Seventy- one Associates were 

 elected, making the total membership (in- 

 cluding all classes) of the Union about 900. 



The average attendance was greater than 

 that at any previous Congress, and, in addition 

 to the regular sessions, at which were pre- 

 sented the papers in the appended list, there 

 was a Union dinner, followed by an informal 

 reception at the American Museum, excur- 

 sions to the Museum of the Brooklyn Insti- 



tute of Arts and Sciences, the New York 

 Aquarium, and New York Zoological Park. 

 The twenty-fourth Congress of the Union 

 will be held in Washington, D. C, Novem- 

 ber 12, 1906. 



LIST OF papers 



Some Unpublished Letters of Wilson and 

 some Unstudied Works of Audubon, Wit- 

 mer Stone ; The Evolution of Species through 

 Climatic Conditions, J. A. Allen; Summer 

 Birds of the Mt. Marcy Region in the 

 Adirondacks, Elon H. Eaton ; Pelican Island 

 Revisited, illustrated by lantern slides, Frank 

 M. Chapman; Some Breeding Warblers of 

 Demarest, N. J., illustrated by lantern slides. 



B. S. Bowdish ; Notes on Wing Movements 

 in Bird Flight, illustrated by lantern slides, 

 William L. Finley; The Status of Certain 

 Species and Subspecies of North American 

 Birds, J. Dwight, Jr. ; Wild-fowl Nurseries 

 of Northwest Canada, illustrated by lantern 

 slideS) Herbert K. Job; Andreae Hesselius, 

 a pioneer Delaware Ornithologist, C.J. Pen- 

 nock ; The Probability of Error in Bird 

 Migration Records, Witmer Stone; Some 

 Observations on the Applicability of the Mu- 

 tation Theory to Birds, Witmer Stone; The 

 Song of the Hermit Thrush, Henry Oldys; 

 Impressions of English Bird-Life, illustrated 

 by lantern slides, Frank M. Chapman; Ex- 

 hibition of Lantern slides, William L. Baily ; 

 A Lapland Longspur Tragedy, illustrated 

 by lantern slides, Thomas S.Roberts; Simi- 

 larity of the Birds of the Maine Woods and 

 the Pocono Mountains, Pa., William L. 

 Baily; Discontinuous Breeding Ranges, il- 

 lustrated by lantern slides. Wells W. Cooke ; 

 The Principles of the Disguising Coloration 

 of Animals, illustrated with experiments and 

 slides, Abbott H. Thayer; The Collection 

 of Birds in the New York Zoological Park, 



C. W. Beebe; A Contribution to the Na- 

 tural History of the English Cuckoo, with a 

 Review of the Literature on the Subject, 

 Dr. Montague R. Leverson ; Plumages and 

 Status of the White-winged Gulls of the 

 genus Larus, Dr. J, Dwight, Jr.; A Con- 

 tribution to the Ornithology of South Caro- 

 lina, pertaining chiefly to the Coast Region, 

 Arthur T. Wayne; Should Bird Protection 

 Laws and their Enforcement be in the hands 

 of the National Government? O. Widman. 



