and early afternoon, when they again started out to feed, returning to the roost 

 just before sunset. A flock of these birds feeding among the thistles is a most 

 beautiful and animated sight ; one is almost persuaded not to disturb them. 

 There is constant movement as they fly from plant to plant, or when securing 

 thistles they fly with them in their bills to a neighboring tree, there to dissect them 

 at their leisure. The loud rolling call was apparently uttered only when on the 

 wing, but when at rest, or feeding, there was a loud conversational murmur of half 

 articulate, querulous notes and calls. 



Of their roosting habits I can say little or nothing. Late one morning 

 (March 15} we found a flock of eight birds resting on a tall, dead cypress near 

 the centre of the hummock on the river's bank. On a previous expedition my 

 guide had observed them in this same tree, which was evidently a favorite midday 

 haunt, and it is not impossible they may have roosted in the hole we discovered 

 up above. These birds took flight as we approached, but twice returned while we 

 waited below, leaving five of their number with us. We secured in all, during 

 our stay of one week, fifteen specimens, only one of which was immature and 

 none of which showed signs of breeding. 



'Con,' the individual captured alive on the first day, proved an interesting 

 but perfectly intractable pet. From the moment of his capture he exhibited 

 not the slightest fear, and sat on his perch as sedately and with as much confi- 

 dence in his own undoubted powers of self-defense as though he had been born in 

 captivity. Thistles, he eagerly accepted from our hands, refusing unripe or 

 imperfect ones and calling for more till his hunger was satisfied. In May he 

 was brought north, and his food now consisted of hard kernels of corn, the cus- 

 tomary cracker and various other kinds of parrot food, except an occasional bit of 

 apple, having apparently no charms for him. He resisted every approach at 

 intimacy and passed the greater part of the day, and frequently also the night, 

 hanging by bill and claws from the top of his cage. In September he commenced 

 to moult, and by November had acquired an entirely new plumage. This fact 

 in connection with the undeveloped condition of the sexual organs in the individ- 

 uals captured, would lead us to suppose they nest late in the summer. Whether 

 constant association with mankind would in time have improved his disposition is 

 a question which will never be settled, for in the following December poor ' Con ' 

 met his death in the American Museum of Natural History by a midnight attack 

 from rats. 



Mr. J. A. Allen read extracts from, and commented upon a Report by Dr, 

 R. Blanchard, entitled ' De la Nomenclature des Etres Organises" presented 

 at the Congres International de Zoologie, Paris, August, 1889. [A review of 

 this 'Report' maybe found in Auk, Vol. VII, 1890, p. 73.] 



November 15, 1889. — The Vice-President in the chair. Fifteen persons pres- 

 ent, including Mr. William Brewster of Cambridge, Mass. 



Mr. F. M. Chapman read a paper by Mrs. F. E. B. Latham of Micco, Brevard 

 Co., Florida, 'On the nesting habits of the Loggerhead Turtle ' . It was ac- 

 companied by a large series of embryos in different stages and occasioned con- 

 siderable discussion. [Printed in ' Forest and Stream,' Jan. 9, 1890, p. 496.] 



Dr. Edgar A. Mearns presented an extended paper giving in much detail the life 

 history of the squirrels of Arizona. In the discussion following, Mr. Sissenere 



