VASSAK BROTHERS INSTITUTE. 81 



DECEMBER 3, 1884— TWENTY-NINTH STATED MEETING. 



Prof. W. B. Dwight, chairman, presiding ; eleven 

 members and ten guests present. 



The third paper in the series, on rotating bodies, was 

 read by Dr. Warring, presenting " Frisi's Law," "Pre- 

 cession of the Equinoxes," and "Various Results and 

 Final Studies." 



Mr. Charles L. Bristol and H. F. Parker, M.D., were 

 elected members. 



DECEMBER 17, 1884— THIRTIETH STATED MEETING. 



Prof. W. B. Dwight, chairman, presiding ; nine mem- 

 bers and several guests present. 

 The following paper was read : 



SOME CHANGES IN" THE HABITS OF BIRDS. 



BY JAMES M. DeGARMO, Ph.D. 



We are accustomed to maintain that considerable 

 changes in the habits of animals require long reaches of 

 time, and great physical changes usually accompany or 

 precede them. But more careful and accurate observa- 

 tion has a tendency to show this opinion to be ill- 

 grounded in fact, and I am inclined to believe that much 

 modification may occur, in habit at least, in quite short 

 spaces of time. 



Twenty years ago, the note of a wood-thrush was 

 not heard in the village where I live. In its habitat 

 away from the dwellings of man, the bird is shy, alert, 

 cautious, — avoiding the presence of man — emphatically 

 a wild bird. Several years ago, a wood-thrush appeared 

 in one of the large yards of the place, which yard was 

 densely wooded with large trees and some shrubbery. At 

 first its liquid notes were only heard in the still hours, 

 and in the most remote parts of the wood. But this shy- 

 ness has gradually left the birds, and they have not only 



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