REPORTS OF MEETINGS— 1899. 



Wednesday evening, February 15th. A meeting was held in 

 the section-room of the Institute for the purpose of organization. 

 Mr. E. J. Burnham was chosen chairman, and Mrs. F. W. Batch- 

 elder, Secretary. After the adoption of by-laws, Mn E. H. Fogg, 

 Mrs. J. VV. Fellows and Miss May W. Davis were appointed a 

 committee to nominate officers. The report of the committee 

 was accepted aud the officers nominated were unanimously elect- 

 ed by ballot. (See list of officers, page 113.) 



After the completion of business the members were addressed 

 by Mr. E. J. Burnham, who offered valuable suggestions relating 

 to the work of the Section. He pointed out the exceptional char- 

 acter of our locality by reason of the overlapping of the Boreal 

 and Alleghanian faunal areas and the proximity of the isothermal 

 line and belt which divide and are at the same time common to 

 both. 



Mr. E. H. Fogg gave an extremely interesting account of var- 

 ious occasions when he was successful in approaching a wood 

 thrush's nest and feeding the mother bird. Adjourned to March 

 1st. 



Wednesday evening, March ist. Mr. Fogg, as chairman of the 

 executive committee, made'the following recommendations : That 

 steps be taken towards the collection of a local museum of orni- 

 thology ; that the Check-List of the American Ornithologists 

 Union be adopted as the standard in nomenclature ; that the 

 systematic study of the structure and life history of birds be un- 

 dertaken by the Section; that papers and talks be voluntary ; that 

 a perpetual record of birds be kept in an ornithological bulletin of 

 the Section, and that to this end two members be appointed at 

 each meeting whose duty it shall be to present at the following 

 meeting special reports of birds observed in the interval ; that 



