treated from numerous standpoints. [This paper appears 

 in this Abstract.] 



October 18, 1893. — The President in the chair. Ten 

 members and three visitors present. 



An amendment to the By-Laws was passed, changing 

 the nights of meeting to the second and fourth Tuesdays 

 of each month. 



A committee was appointed to draft resolutions upon the 

 recent death of our fellow-member, Charles Slover Allen, 

 M. D. 



Mr. F. M. Chapman presented a paper entitled '' The 

 Origin of Certain North American Birds as Determined by 

 their Routes of Migration." He said that the summer vis- 

 itant birds of our country might be divided into two 

 classes, viz.: (1) Those which breed continuously from our 

 southern border to the northern limit of their range and 

 (2) those species in which there is a large area between 

 the southern limit of their breeding range and our south- 

 ern border. Of the first class Mr. Chapman mentioned the 

 Gray Kingbird {Tyr annus dominicensis), Black-whiskered 

 Vireo (Vireo calidris), Parula Warbler (Compsothlypis 

 americana), and Pine Warbler {Dendroica vigor sit). These 

 may be considered to have reached their present limits by 

 a gradual northward extension of their range, in which two 

 causes have had part — (1) absence of competition and (2) 

 abundance of food. As an example of the second class 

 Mr. Chapman chose the Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), 

 a bird which breeds from New Jersey to Nova Scotia, 

 westward to Utah, and northward to the southern border 

 of the British Territories. It is worthy of note that the 

 Bobolinks which nest west of the Rocky Mountains do not 

 migrate southward with the birds of the Western Province, 

 but retrace their steps and leave the United States by way 

 of Florida, thus furnishing evidence of gradual extension 

 of range westward and of the stability of routes of migra- 

 tion. 



J. A. Allen, Ph. D., read a paper entitled " The Migration 



