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THE COLLECTORS* MONTHLY. 



American Ornithologist's Union 



The Ninth Congress of the American I 

 Ornithologist's Union was held at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City, November 17, 18 and 

 19, 1891. The first day was not open 

 to the public, being devoted mainly to 

 the business of the Union, the election of 

 officers, members and other routine 

 work. 



After the business meeting, Dr. Samuel 

 Lockwood of Freehold, N. J., read a pa- 

 per entitled '• Why the Mockingbird Left 

 New Jersey — A Geological Reason." 

 This elicited muqh discussion f'-ora the 

 members. Mr. William Dutcher followed 

 with a paper on "A Probable Occur- 

 rence of the Eurepean Curlew (Numenius 

 arquatus) on Long Island, N. Y. 



The meeting on the second day was 

 public and a large number of people were 

 present. It opened by Mr. D. G. Elliot 

 delivering the President's address: "The 

 Inheritance of Acquired Characters." 

 The other papers read during the day 

 were " The Migrations in Chester County, 

 South Carolina," by Leverett M.Loomis. 

 "A Preliminary Study of the Grackles of 

 the Subgernus Quiscalus," by Mr. Frank 

 M. Chapman, and " Birds Attracted by 

 the Raj's of Liberty's Torch," by Jona- 

 than D wight, Jr. 



On the third day the reading of papers 

 began with one by Theodore A. Schurr, 

 entitled "Plans for Protecting Birds." 

 Following this came three papers by Dr. 

 J. A. Allen : " Geographical Variations in 

 the Nort American Forms of the Genus 

 Colaptes" " The Intergra,dation of Co- 

 luptes auratus with C. cnfer," "Sugges- 

 tions Regarding the Genesis of the Ameri- 

 can Forms of Colaptes.'' Many other 

 papers were read by title and Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam made verbal remarks on "Some 

 Results of the Death Valley Expedition," 

 which was under his charge. The audi- 



ence then repaird to the lecture room of 

 the American Museum to listen to a pa- 

 per by William Palmer on "The Birds of 

 the Pribylof Islands, Alaska," illustrated 

 by lantern slides. Other slides from pho- 

 tographs of living birds and of nests and 

 eggs, contributed by Messrs. Flint, Spel- 

 man, Allen and Stone, were exhibited. 



The Union adjourned late in the after- 

 noon, having held one of the most inter- 

 esting and enjoyable sessions since its 

 foundation. 



Queer Finds. 



As I found a few queer sets this season, 

 I though that perhaps the readers of the 

 Collectors' Monthly would like to hear 

 about them. My first was a peculiar set 

 of Robin's eggs. The nest and birda 

 were of the usual order, but the eggs 

 were thinly spotted with redish brown. 

 Another set was five eggs of the Pewees, 

 four were pure white and one was spotted 

 with red. I also found a set of Albino / 

 Bluebird's eggs. The nest was in a bird- 

 house, and it contained two white eggs. 

 The parents were somewhat more highly 

 colored than is usual in Bluebirds. I also 

 found a peculiar set of Least Flycatcher. 

 There were two eggs in the nest. Least 

 Flycatcher eggs are generally almost 

 completely round, but these eggs were 

 long and slender, like those of the White- 

 bellied Swallow. I read a short time ago, 

 in an Ornithologist paper, about birds 

 changing their modes of nesting. Here 

 the Cedar Waxwing usually nest in trees,*, 

 but this year I found one nest in a bushli 

 about two feet from the ground. The 

 Yellow Warbler, a familiar summer resi- 

 dent here, generally nests in low bushes, 

 but I found one in a small elm tree. 



If any of the readers of the Collec- 

 tors' Monthly have met with similar 

 experience, let me hear from them 

 through its columns. S. 0. Brush. 



