some would remain even into the winter. The flight was usually from 

 the north, but on one occasion, the first great flight of that year, was from 

 the south at the point where I was, and I never saw them in greater num- 

 bers. This was a movement that much surprised me. 



When I was a schoolboy a favorite skating place was Stuyvesant's 

 Creek, a considerable body of water, which had its head quite close to the 

 Third Avenue, about 20th Street, and it emptied into East River — I think 

 about 1 2th Street. On the north side of it, there were high woods, where 

 I have seen Robins pursued by gunners, when the ground was covered 

 with snow and the creek frozen. 



Speaking of skating, reminds me of an experience I had when a boy; 

 it was one that probably but few persons have had who are now living. 

 I skated from the 'Collect,'* (quite a large pond so called, which existed 

 near where the 'Toombs' now stands in Centre Street) down the Canal 

 t hat ran through the middle of Canal Street and was the outlet of the 

 Collect, I passed under the wooden bridge, that crossed the canal at 

 Broadway, and on to Lispenard's Meadows, some distance west of Broad- 

 way. These meadows occupied a large area, and extended to the Hudson 

 River. 



At the time the Robins were migrating, there would be frequently 

 flocks of Meadow Larks {Sturnella magna) going south. I recollect in 

 my younger days, that about three miles from the City Hall, on the east 

 side of the Bloomingdale Road, were extensive pasture fields — about 

 where 40th Street now is; in these the Larks accumulated in large num- 

 bers in October, and of course were much hunted by city gunners. 



March 1, 1SS9. — Annual Meeting. Mr. George B. Sennett, President, 

 in the chair. 



The following officers were elected for the ensuing year. President, 

 Mr. J. A. Allen; Vice-President, Mr. Frank M. Chapman; Secre- 



[* Concerning this pond, DeWitt Clinton says, in his paper read before the N. Y. 

 Lyceum of Natural History, August 9, 1824, 'On the Hirimdo fulva of Vieillot* : 

 "Reputable men, laboring under optical delusion, have declared that they have wit- 

 nessed the descent of the swallow into the Hudson, and the pond on Manhattan Island 

 called the Collect." 



"North of this lay the Fresh Water Pond, with its neighboring district of the Collect 

 or Katch-Hook. This name, which finally came to be applied to the pond itself, was 

 originally given by the Dutch settlers to a point of land on the shores of the pond of 

 about forty-eight acres in extent, the site of an old Indian village. The Fresh Water 

 Pond was one of those traditional ponds which are found in every village, reputed to 

 have no bottom — a reputation which it failed to sustain against the researches of 

 modern times. The pond was indeed, very deep ; deep enough, in fact, to have floated 

 the largest ships in the navy. Its waters were filled with roach and sunfi^h, and to 

 preserve these, the city authorities passed an ordinance in 1734, forbidding any person 

 to fish in it with nets, or in any other way than angling. But the beautiful pond has passed 

 away, and the spot where its sparkling waters once played is now filled by the 'Halls of 

 Justice' with its gloomy prison cells.''— Mary L. BOOTH, Hist. City of New York, 

 1st. ed., 1859, pp. 322, 323.— L. S. F.] 



