1873.] 43 [Ridgway. 



May 21, 1873. 



The President in the chair. Twenty persons present. 



Mr. Wm. T. Brigham, nominated at the previous meeting, 

 was elected to fill the vacancy in the Committee on Ge- 

 ology. 



The following papers were read : — 



Catalogue of the Ornithological Collection of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. Part II. Fal- 

 coridm. By Robert Ridgway. 



The following list of the species and specimens of Falconidas con- 

 tained in the Museum of the Society is intended as one of a series 

 of Catalogues which it is the plan of the Society to continue as 

 fast as a careful preparation of the lists, based upon a thorough 

 revision of the specimens, will permit. The series was commenced 

 by a catalogue of the Spheniscidse, by Prof. A. Hyatt, published in 

 1871.1 



Acknowledgements are due from the author to T. T. Bouve, Esq., 

 the courteous President of the Society, and to Dr. T. M. Brewer, 

 Chairman of the Committee on Birds, for invaluable assistance which 

 they rendered him in the preparation of this work, by kindly furnish- 

 ing every facility needed. He is also under many obligations to Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, Curator of the Norwich Museum, England, and well 

 known as the first authority upon Raptorial birds, for very much 

 information concerning the identification of certain Old World 

 species. 



The numbers affixed to the names in this catalogue correspond 

 with those of Gray's Hand List of Birds, 2 the nomenclature of which 

 is mainly adopted. The arrangement, however, expresses the pecu- 

 liar views of the present author, so far as they have become fixed, re- 

 garding the classification of the family. 



1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xrv., 237. 



2 Hand List of the Genera and Species of Birds, distinguishing those contained 

 in the British Museum. By George Robert Gray, Assistant Keeper of the Zoolog- 

 ical Collections. Part i. Baptores, Fissirostres, Tenuirostres and Dentirostres. 

 London, 1869. 



