26th February^ igio. 



Sir John Byers, President, in the Chair. 



'• SOME OF OUR RARER BIRDS AND THEIR 

 NESTING habits; 



By Mr. Nevin H. Foster, M.B.O.U. 



{Abstract.) 



Mr. Foster in the course of his paper said he thought it 

 would be admitted that no class in the animal kingdom is more 

 universally looked on with favour than that of birds. From 

 whatever standpoint it might be viewed, the subject was one the 

 study of which was fascinating, and ornithological pursuits were 

 well worthy of being encouraged. From the strictly scientific 

 point of view many valuable lessons had been and were to be 

 learned as to the evolution and development of birds from a 

 reptilian ancestry. In the matter of distribution it might be 

 thought that owing to the power possessed by most birds of 

 rapidly transporting themselves from one place to another, even 

 over obstacles which would form an efficient barrier to the passage 

 of other forms of life, the class Aves would be unworthy of regard 

 as a factor in the problems of zoo-geography. Such was by no means 

 the case, for, although some species of birds regularly spend their 

 winters and summers respectively in far distant localities, yet 

 those migrations were found to be constant, and the birds could 

 be looked for in definite localities with certainty in the proper 

 periods of the year. In the case of resident species a natural 

 obstruction, which to their minds seemed to be comparatively 

 insignificant, often proved an effective stop to the spread of a 



