172 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 29, 1910- 
when normal food is hard to obtain, species like 
the marsh hawk, broad-winged hawk, sparrow 
hawk and short-eared owl destroy considerable 
poultry and numbers of small birds. These oc¬ 
casional misdeeds, however, should not preju¬ 
dice us against the species as a whole, since 
taking the year round they do vastly more good 
than harm. 
The prejudice against birds of prey is based 
on faulty premises. The occasional mysterious 
disappearance of a chicken, whether due to cats, 
rats, hawks or owls, makes a deep and lasting 
impression. It is doubtful if the loss of chickens 
by the attacks of hawks and owls averages more 
than one fowl annually to each farmer and 
ranchman. They can well afford to pay even a 
larger interest for the valuable services ren¬ 
dered by the birds of prey in destroying the 
noxious mammals and insects that ruin their 
trees and crops. A. K. Fisher. 
New York Zoological Society. 
Annual Meeting of Board of Managers. 
The sixteenth annual meeting of the board of 
managers of the New York Zoological Society 
was held on Tuesday, Jan. 18, at the Down- 
Town Association, 60 Pine street, at 3 o’clock 
p. M. 
There were present Messrs. Henry Fairfield 
Osborn (in chair), John L. Cadwalader, Madi¬ 
son Grant, William White Niles, Frank K. 
Sturgis, W. Austin Wadsworth, Percy R. Pyne, 
George B. Grinnell, Cleveland H. Dodge, C. 
Ledyard Blair, William C. Church, Lispenard 
Stewart, H. Casimir deRham, Anthony R. 
Kuser, Emerson McMillin, Samuel Thorne, 
Henry A. C. Taylor, Hugh J. Chisholm, George 
C. Clark, William T. Hornaday, director of the 
society’s park, and Charles H. Townsend, direc¬ 
tor of the Aquarium. 
The secretary reported that on May 20, 1909, 
a meeting of the board of managers was held 
at the Zoological Park, and an inspection of the 
park was made. Those present were: Prof. 
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Madison Grant, Wil¬ 
liam White Niles, Percy R. Pyne, John S. 
Barnes, Ogden Mills and Lispenard Stewart. 
The chairman stated that the annual meet¬ 
ing of the society was held at the Plaza on Jan. 
11, 1910, which was attended by 730 members, 
the largest attendance in the history of the so¬ 
ciety. The meeting was very successful. 
Percy R. Pyne, the treasurer, submitted a 
complete set of copies of his report for the 
year 1909, which was accepted and ordered 
printed in the annual report. 
It was resolved that the executive committee 
be authorized to invest in suitable securities, the 
various funds being placed in the endowment 
fund from time to time. 
The following officers and committees were 
chosen for the year 1910: President, Henry 
Fairfield Osborn; First Vice-President, Samuel 
Thorne; Second Vice-President, John L. Cad¬ 
walader; Secretary, Madison Grant; Treasurer, 
Percy R. Pyne; Executive Committee, Madison 
Grant, Henry Fairfield Osborn, John S. Barnes, 
Percy R. Pyne, Samuel Thorne, William White 
Niles, Levi P. Morton, Wm. Pierson Hamilton; 
Auditing Committee, Hugh D. Auchincloss, 
chairman; C. Ledyard Blair, William White 
Niles. 
The by-laws of the society were changed by 
the insertion of a new section which provides 
that “a member who has paid annual dues for 
a period of five years may thereafter, at any 
time, upon the payment of the difference be¬ 
tween the amount of dues already paid and $200, 
become a life member, but such payment shall 
be not less than $100.” 
Madison Grant, chairman of the executive 
committee, made a full report of the work for 
the year 1909 and outlined the plans for 1910. 
The report was ordered printed in the annual 
report on park. 
Mr. Hornaday made an informal report on 
behalf of the park for the year 1909, and Mr. 
Townsend one on behalf of the Aquarium for 
1909. Both these were accepted and ordered 
printed in full in the annual report. 
It was voted that the board recommend to 
the city of New York the extension of the 
Aquarium contract between the society and the 
city for another period of at least ten years, 
and also the extension of the Aquarium by 
additions on the landward side, which will give 
at least three times greater space for exhibi¬ 
tions and crowds than that of the present building. 
After the adjournment of the meeting of the 
board of managers the executive committee met 
for organization and elected Madison Grant its 
chairman. 
To Save the Passenger Pigeon. 
Dr. C. F. Hodge, who in connection with his 
many other duties has undertaken that of try¬ 
ing to bring to light a breeding colony of wild 
pigeons, has infused some of his own enthusiasm 
into a number of other men. Below is found a 
report of the pledges that he has received for 
the discovery of nests of passenger pigeons. 
List of awards for undisturbed nests or nest¬ 
ing colonies received to Jan. 19, 1910: 
Col. Anthony R. Kuser, for first nest or 
nesting colony discovered and con¬ 
firmed anywhere on the continent of 
North America . 
STATE AWARDS. 
W. B. Mershon, for first nest or nesting 
colony found in Michigan. Will con¬ 
firm at his own expense. 
Edward Avis, for first, in Connecticut. 
Will confirm at his own expense. 
Prof. C. O. Whitman and Ruthven Deane, 
for first finding in Illinois. 
John E. Thayer, five awards of $100 each, 
for the five most likely States or Cana¬ 
dian provinces for which no local of¬ 
fers have been volunteered by April 
John E. Thayer, toward expenses of con¬ 
firming reports . 100 
A. B. Miller, for first finding in Worcester 
county, Mass. 20 
George Bird Grinnell, toward minor ex¬ 
penses of work, postage, printing, office 
help, etc. 25 
None of this money has been paid in and none 
will be asked for until nests or nesting colonies 
have been reported and confirmed; or until ex¬ 
penses of office or traveling expenses connected 
with the work have exceeded $100, the amount 
which Dr. Hodge has agreed to contribute 
toward the investigation. 
Besides this John Lewis Childs, of Floral 
Park, New York, writes under date of Jan. 24 
to Mr. William Dutcher: 
“I have noticed a reward by Col. Anthony R. 
Kuser of $300 for the discovery of the passen¬ 
ger pigeon nesting. I wish to add to this re¬ 
ward $700, bringing it up to a thousand. The 
conditions to be the same as specified by Mr. 
Kuser. I will also offer an additional reward 
of $500 to be divided among subsequent finds, if 
more than one nest or breeding colony of the 
passenger pigeon is found during this coming 
season. 
Meadowlarks and White Robins. 
Delanson, N. Y., Jan. 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Christmas day my neighbor, the 
hunter, reported a meadowlark keeping about an 
open barn a mile down the creek. It is said 
that these birds often pass the winter as far 
north as Pennsylvania, but I have never known 
one to winter here. The temperature is often 
10 below zero, occasionally 20, and always a few 
degrees colder than in the Hudson valley at 
Albany, twenty miles away. That one of our 
spring songsters should attempt to resist such 
conditions seems worthy of note. 
But my neighbor’s meadowlark was not the 
only one reported in this locality. I have a cor¬ 
respondent at Esperance, only ten miles away. 
The Schoharie valley at Esperance, like the Hud¬ 
son valley at Albany, is somewhat warmer than 
this upland country. My correspondent under 
date of Jan. 10 writes: 
“At the risk of being tedious I will tell you 
of a very cozy little house which I saw recently, 
or about ten days ago, a sort of miniature crys¬ 
tal palace. There was a tuft of coarse grass by 
the roadside, and when the rain came and froze 
and bent it down it made a fine little house. A 
rise of ground and some bushes protected it on 
the north and west. The door which opened to 
the south was like some church door that I 
$300 have seen — a pointed, Gothic door. It was a 
warm and protected house, especially after the 
last snow came and partly covered it. Here a 
meadowlark had made his home. 
100 “I would go out to see how the bird was get¬ 
ting along, and when he saw me he would fly 
100 ° u t across the road and wait until I turned back, 
when he would return and go in again. I did 
100 n °t often go very near for fear of frightening 
him away. He stayed there a week and then 
was gone.” 
Like Mrs. W. R. McCaul, of Wisconsin, and 
Master Wainwright Merrill, of Massachusetts, 
my Esperance correspondent adds a paragraph 
to the history of the white robin. He writes: 
“I read your ‘Autumn Robins’ in the Dec. 4 
issue of Forest and Stream. I think your albino 
robin must have been whiter than the one which 
was here some years ago. Ours was more of 
an ash color, yet decidedly white. It returned 
and was with us the second season and around 
the same place. I did not see it after the sec¬ 
ond year. It seems that the same birds come 
back to the same place, season after season. 
Perhaps the one which you saw will come back 
to you next summer, but you may have seen' it 
only on its migration southward.” 
Will W. Christman. 
