itis vocifera) along the New England coast after the storm of November 

 27. Mr. Dutcher said that his men at the east end of Long Island re- 

 ported large numbers of these birds early in December. 



January iS, 18S9. — Mr. William Dutcher in the chair. 



Mr. John Tatlock, Jr., upon being introduced, made some remarks about 

 Prof. W. W. Cooke's recently published report upon 'Bird Migration in 

 the Mississippi Valley.' In regard to the chapter on 'The Relation of 

 Migration to Barometric Pressure and Temperature,' the speaker criti- 

 cised Prof. Cooke's conclusions as being based upon insufficient data. 

 Mr. Tatlock finds ground for believing that temperature alone influences 

 bird migration, and differs further from Prof. Cooke, who thinks migra- 

 tion occurs simultaneously over a wide area, in deeming it largely local. 

 In the discussion which followed. Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., mentioned 

 the necessity of the use of very full data in reaching conclusions. Mr. 

 William Dutcher said that not very much regarding migration could be 

 deduced from birds striking light-houses, for the reason that birds do not 

 strike on clear nights. A single exception is that of a Greater Yellow- 

 legs (Tota?ius melanoleucus) which struck a Long Island light-house one 

 moonlight night. An unexplained fact is that where one bird strikes in 

 the spring, twenty strike in the fall. 



Mr. Dutcher read extracts from a letter written by Mr. Austin F. Park, 

 Troy, N. Y. , regarding Octocoris alpestris praticola breeding there on 

 Green Island. Six, including three young, were taken July 21, 1888, and 

 six others, one young just from the nest, on July 28. This is of special 

 interest in comparison with the early breeding of the species in the 

 western part of the State, as has been repeatedly recorded, as it doubtless 

 indicates that the birds rear more than one brood each season. Mr. Dutcher 

 also read extracts from the journal of the keeper of Little Gull Island 

 light-house, Long Island, which related to the birds seen there from Au- 

 gust 16, 1888, to the end of the year. The first Cormorants were noted Sep- 

 tember 1. One third of those seen on Novembers were "the large kind," 

 supposed to be Pkalacrocorax carbo. 



Mr. A. H. Hawley read a paper on the birds observed by him in Santa 

 Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, California, during the year 1888, and 

 exhibited a large number of specimens. 



February 1, 1889. — Mr. Geoi-ge B. Sennett, President, in the chair. 



Mr. Dutcher read a paper by Mr. Newbold T. Lawrence, entitled 'Long 

 Tsland Bird Notes,' which will be published later in 'The Auk' : he also 

 exhibited a singular looking mollusk {^Solus papulosa), in alcohol, from 

 Long Island. 



Dr. George Bird Grinnell presented a paper upon the Rocky Mountain 

 Goat (Maza?na montdna), which will be published in 'Forest and Sti-eam.' 

 The limits of the range of this animal have never been fully defined by 

 any one writer. It is a mammal belonging to the Arctic fauna and only 

 found among the high and rugged mountains of the Rockies and Coast 

 Range, where the snow lies all the year. The center of its abundance 

 seems to be in Western Montana, Idaho and Washington Territories, and 



