NOV. 22, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
653 
The American Ornithologists’ Union 
The thirty-first stated meeting of the Amer¬ 
ican Ornithologists’ Union was held last week, 
November nth to 14th, at the American Museum 
of Natural History, New York City. 
The business meeting of the Fellows of 
the Union was held at the Explorers’ Club, 
345 Amsterdam Avenue, on Monday evening, 
November 10th. About thirty Fellows were 
present. In addition to the routine business, 
three Fellows were elected, Joseph Mailliard, 
of San Francisco, Cal., Waldron deWitt 
Miller, of New York, and Waldo Lee McAtee, 
of Washington. There were also elected as mem¬ 
bers, Arthur A. Allen, of Ithaca, N. Y., Dr. R. 
M. Anderson, of New York City, Dr. W. H. 
Bergtold, of Denver, Col.; W. Lee Chambers, 
of Eagle Rock, Cal., and George Willet, of Los 
Angeles, Cal. The officers elected were Presi¬ 
dent Frank M. Chapman; Vice-Presidents, A. 
K. Fisher, and H. W. Henshaw; Secretary, John 
H. Sage; and Treasurer, Jonathan Dwight, Jr. 
Tuesday, Wednesday and a part of Thursday 
were given up to the reading of papers, of which 
the following is a list: 
TUESDAY MORNING. 
The Work of a Village Bird Club—Ernest 
Harold Baynes. 
Experiments in Feeding Hummingbirds dur¬ 
ing Seven Summers—Althea R. Sherman. 
A Plea for the Conservation of the Eider— 
Dr. Charles W. Townsend. 
A Study of the Feeding of Nestlings—Lynds 
Jones. 
In Memoriam—Philip Lutley Sclater—Dr. 
Daniel Giraud Elliot. 
TUESDAY AFTERNOON. 
The Problem of Gliding Gulls. Illustrated 
by lantern slides.—-William Palmer. 
Some Observations on the Nesting of the 
Pied-billed Grebe. Illustrated by lantern slides. 
—Arthur A. Allen. 
Birds of the Bogota Region of Colombia. 
Illustrated by lantern slides.—Frank M. Chap¬ 
man. 
WEDNESDAY MORNING. 
Bird Groups at the Field Museum of Natural 
History. Wilfred H. Osgood. 
Some Migration Phenomena—Lynds Jones. 
Notes on the Nesting Habits of the North¬ 
ern Violet-green Swallow ( Tachycineta thalas- 
sina lepida), at Seattle, Washington.-—S. F. Rath- 
bun. 
Persuading the Robins to Nest Near Our 
Homes—Mrs. E. O. Marshall. 
Alexander Wilson. 1766-1813, and Some Wil- 
soniana—Dr. Witmer Stone. 
The Present Status of Wild Swans in Mon¬ 
tana—E. S. Cameron. 
A Forgotten Plumage Character of the 
American Scoter—Dr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr. 
Bird Banding Activities; Season, 1913— 
Howard H. Cleaves. 
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 
Wild Fowl Studies in Northern Manitoba. 
Illustrated by lantern slides.—-Herbert K. Job. 
The Musical Method versus the Syllabic 
Method of Recording Bird Songs—-Robert Thom¬ 
as Moore. 
Crossing the Andes of Peru. Illustrated by 
lantern slides.-—Wilfred H. Osgood. 
THURSDAY MORNING. 
Some Ornithological Aspects of the Federal 
Migratory Bird Law—Dr. T. S. Palmer. 
Bird Studies on Tames Bay—W. E. Clvde 
Todd. 
The Present Condition of the Aviary of the 
New York Zoological Society—C. William Beebe. 
Birds of the South Atlantic. Illustrated by 
lantern slides.—Robert Cushman Murphy. 
Notes on Nighthawks—Harry C. Oberholser. 
Dr. Palmer’s remarks on the Federal Migra¬ 
tory Bird Law possess peculiar interest for sports¬ 
men. He reported unexpected success in carry¬ 
ing through the various clauses of the President’s 
proclamation. Sportsmen in general have read¬ 
ily accepted the restrictions on shooting; the 
various states show every disposition to co-oper¬ 
ate in carrying out the provisions of the law, 
and the public opinion seems to be upholding it. 
The regulations seem to have the sympathy of 
the public. The whole situation, therefore, is 
very encouraging, and instead of meeting with 
great difficulties in carrying out provisions se¬ 
verer than those already existing, the public on 
the whole has received the efforts of the Bird 
Committee with great friendliness. Additional to 
the regulations passed for the protection of all 
migratory birds is the hope of bird law treaties 
with foreign countries. Such treaties would un¬ 
questionably offer protection to certain species, 
especially the ground dove and the band-tailed 
pigeon, which now in some places are without 
any protection. 
Mr. W. S. Haskell, Vice-President of the 
American Game Protective and Propagation As¬ 
sociation, followed Dr. Palmer in discussing this 
subject, dealing especially with the legal side of 
the problem and expressing the opinion that the 
New York State Attorney General on further 
study of the law would find that it is not uncon¬ 
stitutional. Mr. Haskell said something also 
about the efforts to formulate a treaty with other 
North American countries, especially Canada, a 
matter on which he is now engaged. 
On Thursday afternoon, through the cour¬ 
tesy of Robert W. Priest, of the Gaumont Co., 
cf London, there was a special exhibition of the 
motion pictures of antarctic life, taken by Herbert 
Ponting, the official photographer of the British 
antarctic expedition under Captain Scott. These 
pictures were of extraordinary interest, and deal 
largely with the life of the region, showing birds, 
seals, killerwhales, and other forms of arctic life. 
On Friday the members of the Union, by 
invitation of the New York Zoological Society, 
visited in the morning the New York Aquarium, 
where they were shown its wonders by Dr. C. 
H. Townsend, and in the afternoon visited the 
Zoological Park, under the guidance of Dr. Win. 
T. Hornaday. 
The meeting was the largest, most enthusi¬ 
astic and perhaps the most interesting that ever 
has been held. 
It was decided to hold the next meeting in 
Washington, D. C., in the spring, probably about 
the Easter vacation. 
Each day the Union was entertained at lunch 
by the Linnean Society of New York. 
Carrier Pigeon No. 018025 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 9,1913. —Editor Forest 
and Stream : I have had a pigeon in my possession 
since last June. It has a tag on its leg, the 
number is 018025, and a plain brass one on the 
other leg. Can you tell anything about it, or 
who the owner is? 
Percy C. Warren, 
Flatlands Bay, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
The fact that the world’s cleverest busi¬ 
ness men annually invest in excess of five 
hundred million dollars in advertising proves 
conclusively that an inability to succeed in it 
is due to improper application of its princi¬ 
ples to the particular case—and nothing more. 
TOP RAIL 
A PROBLEM that will interest all field shoot¬ 
ers has been presented me. Mr. Good- 
shooter buys, on two weeks’ trial, a bird 
dog, guaranteed by the breeder to be “perfect¬ 
ly” broken on roughed grouse and woodcock. A 
week after the dog was received and has become 
at home with the new “owner” he is taken out, 
fifty miles from “home” for a try on grouse. 
After running full speed through a pair of 
grouse, he finally comes to an indifferent point 
on a single cock, and, on approach of the gunner, 
breaks the point and flushes the bird. The 
gunner fires, bags the bird. Instead of retrieving 
the game, Mr. Good Dog tucks away his tail in 
the only place a poor dog has for that appendage, 
and continues on down the mountain in viola¬ 
tion of the speed limit even for a field trial 
winner. Mr. Gunner goes in hot (dashes may 
be supplied here) pursuit, but four legs and hori¬ 
zontal body finds easier going than two legs and 
perpendicular build, and Mr. Dog vanishes from 
vision. 
After a two days’ unsuccessful hunt for the 
dog through the surrounding villages the search 
is abandoned. Now, the question arises—Does 
Mr. Goodshooter owe the breeder for that dog? 
or does Mr. Breeder owe Mr. Goodshooter for 
expense of the shooting trip and the cost of the 
search for the dog, which was gun shy and abso¬ 
lutely the opposite to the breeder’s guarantee. 
I decide in favor of Mr. Goodshooter. What say 
you? 
Dear Grizzly King: 
Does the recoil of a gun commence before 
or after the bullet leaves the muzzle? T. B. A. 
The recoil of a gun begins when the bullet 
begins to move in the gun. Newton’s “Third 
Law of Motion” is applicable to this case: “To 
every action there is an equal and opposite re¬ 
action.” There can be no motion of the gun 
backward till the bullet begins to move in the 
opposite direction. There is another way to look 
at it. If the charge of powder were exploded 
in a chamber strong enough to hold the pressure 
of the gases, there would be no motion produced 
by the powder, and no motion of the chamber 
in any direction. The recoil is due to the fact 
that the gun has the same quantity of motion 
backward that the bullet has forward. If the 
bullet had the same weight as the gun, the gun 
would move backward with the same velocity 
as the bullet moves forward, and would strike 
the same blow as the bullet. It is the motion of 
the bullet which produces the recoil of the gun. 
The force of the powder acts in the same man¬ 
ner in every direction. The sides of the gun 
barrel resist this pressure and prevent motion 
sidewise. The bullet, if it does not stick, moves. 
The pressure of the gases is the same forward 
and backward, and this force is applied to the 
bullet forward and to the gun backward. Each 
has the same quantity of motion, or momentum. 
Grizzly King. 
Duck shooting is fairly inaugurated in the 
Eastern and Middle States. Excellent reports 
come to us of the flights of birds. We invite 
our friends who have success with the ducks to 
send us early reports of the same. We should 
also be pleased to hear of the game prospects 
of the country. 
