8 THE SEMI-ANNUAL. 



REPORT OF THE OOLOGICAL COMMTTTEE OF THE 



WILSON ORNITHOLOGICAL CHAPTER. 



It is with no small degree of pleasure and satisfaction that this, 

 the first report of the Oological Committee, is submitted to you. 

 Our course has hardly been more than an experiment, but a very 

 successful one in showing what can be done by the untied efforts 

 of earnest, interested members. What we have done is not 

 great in itself, but it is a germ from which may yet spring a tree 

 whose yearly leaves shall unfold to us what we so earnestly seek. 



Much can be done and much will be done under an organized 

 leadership. The members have shown a willingness amounting 

 to eagerness, to do the work, waiting only to be given direction. 

 Next year will bring before us a report which will be preserved 

 as a contribution to American Ornithologv. 



I wish to heartily thank those upon whom I have called to aid 

 me in this work, for their prompt, earnest, energetic eftbrts. 

 This report is the united result of the work of Messrs. Frank L. 

 Burns, Berwyn, Chester Co., Pa., Chas. A. Ely, Perrineville, 

 N. J., J. Warren Jacobs, Pittsburg, Pa., Lionel T. Bowers, 

 Columbia, Pa. and Reuben M. Strong, Wauwatosa, Wis. 



It was the original plan of the Committee to limit its scope to 

 the Thrushes proper, believing that with a species much more 

 efficient work could be done than with many. The A. O. U. 

 nomenclature was adopted, thus greatly limiting the field, but as 

 each report contains notes on the Brown Thrasher and Catbird, 

 that nomenclature was disregarded in the report in which appear 

 the two species mentioned. About half of the reports contain 

 notes on Bluebird and one or two upon the Warblers. As this 

 report depends upon comparison of notes for its chief value these 

 additional notes will appear in a separate general report, not 

 entering into the report proper. 



In working over the notes I have compared our own work on 

 measurements with that of those who are considered authority, 

 considering it of sufiicient interest to pay for the trouble and 

 space. I have, also, gone a little beyond the limits of this re- 

 port in order to sliow tlie relation of the arrival of a species to 

 its nestino-. 



