— 468 — 



report cm the following subjects at the next meeting : 

 Nomenclature and classification, migration, osteology, 

 on the desirability or otherwise of encouraging the 

 English sparrow, and on distribution of species. At the 

 close it was decided, in consideration of the importance 

 of the proceedings and of the enjoyment they had 

 afforded, to have all those present photographed in a 

 group, which was subsequently carried out successfully 

 by Bogardus of Broadway." (I am indebted to Montague 

 Chamberlain for a photo of this groups of savants, in 

 which I can easily recognize some familiar faces.) The 

 American Ornithologists' union founded an organ — a 

 well edited quarterly — The Auk, while the organ of 

 the British association is named The Ibis, both highly 

 valued publications. 



The earliest ornithological record in Canada, I 

 might say, possibly in America, occurs in Jacques 

 Cartier's Voyages up the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 

 Chapters II, III, VI, VII, XII, of the narrative of his 

 first voyage, -in 1534, and Chapter I, of his second 

 voyage in 1535, as well as an entry in the log of 

 Eoberval's first pilot, Jean Alphonse, in 1542, mention 

 is made of the myriads of gannets, gulls, guillemots, 

 puffins, eider-ducks, cormorants and other sea fowl 

 nesting on the bird rocks and on the desolate isles off 

 the Labrador coast. Jacques Cartier goes so far as to 

 say that " the whole French navy might be freighted 

 with these noisy denizens of that wild region without 

 any apparent diminution in their number." (Cap. I — 2, 

 Voyage) Eeliable modern naturalists, Dr. Henry 

 Bryant of Boston- — visiting the bird-rocks in 1860, and 

 Charles A. Cory, in 1878, confirm these statements of 

 early discoverers as to the number and species of birds 

 to be found in the lower St. Lawrence. The Jesuit, le 

 Jeune, in the Relations des Jdsuites, for 1632, dwells 

 on the multitude of aquatic birds infesting Ile-aux-Oies, 

 (county of Montmagny), aud frequenting the shores of 

 our noble river. Friar Gabriel Sagard Theodat that 



