18 



. The Secretary also read a clipping from a recent issue of The 

 Springfield Republican, in which it was stated that the name 

 of the Springfield Bird Club had been changed to the Allen 

 Bird Club, in honor of Dr. J. A. Allen. 



Mr. Henry Thurston was elected a resident member of the 

 Society. 



Mr. Cleaves, in behalf of the bird-banding committee, 

 recorded the taking of a Bluebird (Sialia s. sialis) which had 

 been tagged as a nestUng by Mr. E. H. Baynes at Meriden, 

 N. H., on June 3, 1911, and was shot from a flock at Berlin, 

 Md., on January 20, 1912. 



Mr. Ludlow Griscom reported seeing a Field Sparrow 

 (Spizella p. pusilla) and a Mockingbird {Mimus p. polyglottos) 

 in Bronx Park on February 17. 



Mr. J. M. Johnson spoke of seeing recently a number of 

 Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax ncevius) 

 at Lake Agassiz in Bronx Park. A few birds that had been 

 reared in captivity formed a nucleus which attracted other 

 members of the species, and there were now said to be as 

 many as 30 in the flock. It was thus hoped that a breeding 

 colony of wild Night Herons might be established in the Park. 



Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes reported that a Mockingbird 

 {Mimus p. polyglottos) was spending the winter at Groton, 

 Mass. 



As the subject of bird-banding was one of especial interest 

 to the Society, Mr. Baynes also spoke for a few minutes on 

 his experiences and methods in tagging birds, and showed 

 several lantern slides bearing on the subject. 



As founder of the American Bison Society, Mr. Baynes 

 was particularly qualified to present the paper of the evening, 

 which was entitled ''The American Bison.'' He spoke in 

 turn of the earliest records of the Buffalo, its general habits, its 

 relation to the Plains Indians, the great slaughter by white 

 hunters and settlers, the efforts to prevent its complete exter- 

 mination, the formation of the American Bison Society and 

 the results it has achieved, and the present status of the herds 

 of Buffaloes in the United States and Canada. Great progress 

 has been made in preserving and propagating these herds, 



