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Monday, December 22, 1862. 



Meeting this evening, the President in the Chair. 



Records of the preceding, meeting read. 



Letters were read from J. H. Hickcox of Albany N.Y.; 

 George W. Wheelwright and W. F. Poole of Boston ; Mas- 

 sachusetts Historical Society ; Trustees of the Boston Ath- 

 enaeum ; S. P. Fowler of Danvers ; S. H. Grant of the 

 New York Mercantile Library Association. 



Donations from the following were announced. 



To the Library — from Canadian Institute at Toronto ; C. 

 B. Eichardson of New York ; Joshua Coffin of Newbury ; 

 W. S. Hiltz ; Boston Society of Natural History ; American 

 Antiquarian Society. 



To the Cabinels — froni J. C. Lee ; Shove S. Symonds. 



The Secretary mentioned that several specimens of the 

 Snow Owl {Strix nyctea) had been taken in this vicinity 

 during the present season. In this connection extracts were 

 read from the Canadian Journal, a publication printed in 

 Toronto, under the direction of a Committee of the Canadian 

 Institute, respecting the abundance of these birds on the 

 shores of Lake Ontario, and of their habits. Mr. S. Passa- 

 more, a well known taxidermist in Toronto, under date of 

 17th of November 1862, speaks of having some forty or fifty 

 specimens which had been shot within the past two or three 

 weeks, in that neighborhood, some measuring five feet four 

 inches from wing to wing. Similar numbers are stated to 

 have appeared in 1837. Mr. Passamore gives 1833, 1839, 

 1853, as abundant years. 



