Cambridge is a particularly fitting place 

 for a big meet of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, for the club out of which the 

 union grew was born there more than a 

 generation ago. The Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club originally consisted of a few bird lov- 

 ers, enthusiasts of Cambridge and Boston, 

 many of whose names have since become 

 familiar the world over to all who pay 

 even casual attention to American orni- 

 thology. It began as an informal affair, 

 with an active membership of less than 

 twenty, but it soon became organized, and i 

 as time passed began publishing the Quar- j 

 terly Bulletin of the Nuttall Club, the in- 

 fluence of which in matters ornithological j 

 became great throughout the country, and 

 Indeed far beyond its borders. The corre- 

 apondlns members of the club included all | 



American ornithologists of note, and 

 through their cooperation the club was able 

 to concentrate the ornithological iAterests 

 of the country, the Quarterly proving not 

 only a strong bond of union, but also an 

 indispensable medium of communication. 



That was way back in the dark ages of 

 the eighteen hundred and seventies and the 

 early eighties. In .September o£ 18S3 a 

 meeting of the ornithologists of the coun- 

 try was held in New York and amid much 

 enthusiasm the little but powerful Nuttall 

 Club of Cambridge was merged in the 

 larger and still more influential American 

 Ornithologists' Union, a national, indeed 

 an international, organization to which it 

 transferred its prestige and its quarterly 

 journal, which thus became The Auk. 

 With the vigor of youth the union went at 

 its work immediately and mapped out ex- 

 tensive programmes for various commit- 

 tees which took them up enthusiastically. 

 As it had organized and unified the orni- 

 thological interests of the country, so it 

 set about organizing and unifying the work 

 of those interests. For a dozen years the_ 

 bird students of the country had been ac- 

 tively arid enthusiastically at work, study- 

 ing birds, finding and naming new species, 

 writing and publishing books on ornithol- 

 ogy, with a resulting great increase in 

 knowledge and nomenclature and a some- 

 what dire confusion of both. /Scientific 

 nomenclature, which is supposed to be a 

 crystallization of knowledge into definite 

 and accepted form, was instead a sad mix- 

 ture of incoherences. There were two 

 check lists of North American birds of 

 equal prominence and of embarrassing di- 

 vergence of statement, and it was felt that 

 the best authorities should get together and 

 reduce this chaotic condition to a more per- 

 fect order. Indeed, it was on this nucleus 

 more than any other that the union itself 

 crystallized. 



The work assigned the committee which 

 had this in charge required the considera- 

 tion not only of what birds should be ad- 

 mitted as North American, but their se- 

 quence and relative rank— scientifically, of 

 course— and their correct scientific names, 

 rules of nomenclature as well as status and 

 relations, of groups. It was a task of im- 

 mense labor and one in which personal in- 

 terests and bias had often to "be sacri- 

 ficed for the rightness of the final outcome. 

 In two years and six months there was 

 before the public an octavo volume of 

 about 400 pages, containing first a code 

 of nomenclature and second a check-list of 

 North American birds, including their 

 range, and the authorities for the names 

 adopted. This, list was immediately ac- 



cepted as the standard authority with all 

 American writers on "birds. With revision 

 and addition it has stood ever since and is 

 considered the final authority the world 

 over. Such good work for science grew so 

 soon out of the little Nuttall Club, which 

 was born in Cambridge. 



Many other activities were begun at that 

 original meeting which have since borne 

 good results. A committee on avian anat- 

 omy was appointed and that good work is 

 still done by the union in avian anatomy 

 was proven at the recent meeting when 

 Mr. Hubert Lyman Clark of Cambridge 

 told in clear-cut phraseology, which was 

 equally as clear to the novice as to the 

 scientist, how he had examined ihe 

 anatomical structure of the South Ameri- 

 can bird known to American ornithologists 

 as the Panama thrush-warbler and to the 

 English as the rose-breasted wren, and 

 proved that the bird was neither a thrush, 

 warbler nor wren, but must by rights be 

 considered as nearest the tanagers. 



There was a committee on the status of 

 the European house sparrow, which has 

 since presented a thorough report, an im- 

 portant publication which has since served 



as a guide to legislation and a usef>il a- 

 position of a grievous pest. 



The committee on the geographical 

 distribution of North American bird* 

 which was appointed at this first meet- 

 ing was subsequently merged with the 

 committee on the migration of North 

 American birds under the chairmanship 

 of the famous Dr. C. Hart Merriam, An 

 enormous work was immediately taken 

 up by this committee, its division of eco- 

 nomic ornithology carrying on extensive 

 researches into the food of our wild 

 birds. This work was so great and of 

 such obvious national value that it was 

 taken over by the National Government 

 and has since become the Biological Sur- 

 vey, an important branch of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



At the second congress of the Union 

 a committee was appointed on protec- 

 tion of North American birds, a work 

 humanitarian and utilitarian rather than 

 scientific. This committee undertook to 

 enlighten public opinion in respect to the 

 extent of the destruction of birds, espe- 

 cially for millinery purposes, and the 

 lamentable results. This great work for 

 the general good was immediately taken 

 up and has been qarried forward ever 

 s'rce, though like that of the division of 

 economic ornithology it has since passed 

 from the direct control of the A. O. U. 

 This work has since spread throughout 

 the country In the Audubon Societies 

 which are now doing such splendid wel- 

 fare work for birds in almost every 

 State in the Union. Thus besides the 

 present strong and vigorous A. O. U. 

 child of the original Nuttall Club of 

 Cambridge, we have these mighty grand- 

 children, the Biological Survey, and the 

 Audubon Societies. The study of birds 

 in this country from a scientific, utili- 

 tarian and aesthetic point of view, now 

 so universal the continent over, had its 

 first conscious origin in the little Nuttall 

 Club, which was to later merge in. the 

 organization whose thirtieth annual con- 

 gress has just closed at Cambridge. It 

 has been a great power for good already 

 and its work, especially the branches 

 pertaining to the utilitarian and human- 

 itarian side of the movement, is still 

 only just begun. 



