THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



43 



— life has ceased with you ; and all that re- 

 mains now lies in one of the drawers of the 

 National Museum, with the following label: 

 No. 135068, U. S. National Museum, 

 Saxicola oenanthe, male, immature, near 

 Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 4, 1894. 



Adolphe B. CovKkt. 

 Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Cooper Ornithological Club 



AT the meeting at San Jose, November 

 3, Otto Emerson of Hay wards, 

 Edward Simmons of Pasadena, and 

 H. Ward Carriger of Stockton were 

 elected to membership. It was decided to 

 hold the next meeting, December 8 at 

 Alameda. 



PUBLICATIONS TO BE SCIENTIFIC 



The following resolution was passed: 

 Resolved, That the Cooper Ornithological Club 

 publish in its Proceedings, in whole or in part, 

 only such papers, read before the club, as contain 

 observations new to science; or facts presented in a 

 new light; or facts corroborating already pub- 

 lished statements which are more or less in doubt- 

 in brief, only such matter as is of general interest 

 to scientific Ornithologists and Oologists through- 

 out America. 



ON THE MILLINERY INIQUITY 



The following resolutions were passed: 



Resolved, That the Cooper Ornithological Club 

 deplore and condemn the perverted taste and 

 cruelty of the fair sex in fostering the slaughter of 

 thousands of Egrets (for their plumes) and count- 

 less numbers of other birds, of song and beauty, 

 for millinery purposes; and that we especially 

 condemn the shooting of Gulls and Terns on the 

 shores of the San Francisco Bay, as well as Snowy 

 Plover and other shore birds along the coast, and 

 the wholesale slaughter along the Colorado river, 

 where birds are exterminated by Indians em- 

 ployed by unscrupulous whites; that we view with 

 alarm the appalling fact that more birds are de- 

 stroyed annually in the United States for each 

 large millinery firm than are contained in the 

 combined collections of bird students in this 

 country — the accumulations of generations. And 

 be it further 



Resolved, That every means be put forth to in- 

 fluence legislation for the protection of birds, and 

 to discourage the wearing of birds, resulting in 

 such shameful annihilation of the beautiful crea- 

 tures of the air, the common, inalienable heritage 

 of all who love Nature and her children of hill 

 and valley, wood and shore. And be it further 



Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be 

 sent to the intelligent and generous press, who may 

 assist in the elimination of this execrable evil of 

 fashion. 



Mr. D. A. Cohen read the following 

 paper on, 



THE INDIVIDUALITY OF BIRDS. 



Some time ago Mr. H. R. Taylor men- 

 tioned, in an article, the similarity of cer- 

 tain Golden Eagle's eggs, showing that 

 eggs similar in size, shape or markings are 

 produced by the same pair of birds in the 

 same nest year after year. The following 

 is corroborative of the law suggested by 

 Mr. Taylor. Several sets of eggs of the 

 Spurred Towhee, probably laid by the same 

 bird, were taken in four successive years. 

 The eggs are all of the same shape and 

 color, and without recourse to a caliper 

 rule, I should say they are all one-third 

 smaller than average specimens. 



In 1 89 1 I took four eggs in bramble 

 under an oak tree. 



April 23, 1892, four eggs, incubation 

 begun — nest only a few yards from first 

 one. 



July 15, 1893, two eggs, fresh, bird 

 flushed and abandoned nest which was 

 within several feet of first one. 



May 10, 1894, two fresh eggs and two 

 too highly incubated to blow, and two 

 highly incubated eggs of Valley Partridge 

 — nest several feet from first one. 



From the peculiar circumstances it seems 

 evident that all of these sets of small eggs 

 were laid by an individual bird. 



Mr. R. S. Wheeler related an instance 

 where he had observed a Say's Pewee, in 

 New Mexico, lay in the same nest, under 

 a ledge of rock, in three successive years. 

 He took two sets of six, and ane of five 

 (fresh), presumably from the one bird, 

 while ordinarily four and sometimes five is 

 the number laid. 



The California Towhee, which apparently 

 remains paired the year round, was spoken 

 of as a good bird to study in this connec- 

 tion. 



Mr. Emerson mentioned the case of a 

 California Screech Owl, in which the same 

 bird apparently had returned to the nesting 

 box in his garden three successive years. 

 It was a question, he said, whether the old 

 birds or their young return to the old nest 

 to breed. Mr. Emerson announced his in- 

 tention of attaching a small metal tag to 

 each bird of this pair of familiar Owis and 

 so definitely determine .several interesting 

 questions. 



