SECTION D— ORNITHOLOGY. 



This Section was organized February 15th, 1899, and admitted 

 to the Institute January 17th, 1899. 



It has for its objects the systematic study of the structure and 

 life-history of birds in general and the observation, record and 

 classification of the avifauna of Manchester and vicinity. Special 

 subjects for investigation will be the distribution of species locally 

 with relation to climatic, geologic and floral conditions, the habits 

 of birds, their food in its relation to insect pests and thereby 

 to agriculture, their songs and calls, their variations — in short, 

 anything which may increase our knowledge of their life -histories 

 and of the links which join them to the lower and the higher 

 animals and to man. 



Two important collateral branches of the work will be these : 

 First, the collection of a local museum of ornithology, in which 

 in the course of time all the species incident to the region shall 

 be represented by mounted specimens and skins prepared accord- 

 ing to the latest and most approved methods ; second, the compil- 

 ation of as full a list as possible of resident, migrant, visitant and 

 accidental species. The list will of necessity be at first a modest 

 one. The addition of supplements annually will render practica- 

 ble at no distant date the publication of a list more nearly com- 

 mensurate Vv'ith our ambition and with the avian wealth of an 

 exceptionally favored locality. 



The situation of Manchester is favorable to variety in its fauna 

 no less than in its flora. The overlapping of the Boreal and 

 Alleghanian areas gives rise to a corresponding overlapping of 

 the breeding ranges of various species of birds. In illustration 

 and proof of this may be cited the fact that the breeding range 

 of the wood thrush extends not less than twenty miles north and 

 of the hermit thrush not less than twenty miles south of Man- 

 chester, and that the white-throated sparrow or peabody bird is a 

 summer resident. 



