812 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 19, 1910. 
published early in 1804. This account was fur¬ 
nished to M. Geoffroi by Mr. Savage, the then 
director of the museum of New York. 
After some difficulty, access has been had to 
a file of the New York Daily Advertiser, and in 
the issue of Saturday, Dec. 4, 1802, is found the 
account of the My-Attic prefaced by the fol¬ 
lowing letter: 
To the Editor of the Daily Advertiser, 
Sir :— 
Having been informed that Mr.. D. Mc- 
Gillevray, a Gentleman from Canada, had in 
his poffefi'ion, the Skin of a non-descript animal, 
I made application to him for leave to make a 
drawing of it, to Enrich the Columbian Gallery. 
He very politely indulged my requeft, and at 
my folicitation has favored me with the follow¬ 
ing account, which Elucidates the Drawing, and 
which may gratify the public curiofity. 
E. Savage. 
We thus have the name of the man who made 
the hunt and who wrote the account. 
The discovery of the letter to the Daily Ad¬ 
vertiser from Mr. Savage satisfactorily links the 
account in question with the account in Geoffroi 
already referred to. Geoffroi says that Mr. 
Savage at the request of Mr. Lormerie, a French 
agriculturist, sent him (Geoffroi) the sketch of 
this ram together with a copy of the account 
printed in the Daily Advertiser, and the descrip¬ 
tion is based on this letter and on the drawing. 
The whole substance of the article, inc'uding the 
measurements, is copied. Desmarests' name, Ovis 
cervunis, was based on this account. Shaw’s ac¬ 
count, in the “Naturalists’ Miscellaney,” no doubt 
published some time during 1804, does not give a 
Latin name either on plate or in the text, but in 
the index to the volume (Vol. XVI.) we find 
"Plate 610 Ovis cadensis.” It is probable that the 
skin mentioned in the Advertiser letter was sent 
to London, since Shaw says “a very fine speci¬ 
men of this rare quadruped may be seen in the 
British Museum.” 
A letter addressed to Dr. R. Lydekker, in 
charge of the mammals in the British Museum 
of Natural History in London, has brought a 
courteous reply which indicates that no informa¬ 
tion is to be had concerning this specimen in that 
institution—so far as can be ascertained. ' The 
Royal Society of London has no list of dona¬ 
tions running back to anything like this date. 
It is very interesting and gratifying that 
through the help of Dr. Allen this connection has 
been established between the several accounts of 
the specimen obtained no years ago by Mr. Mc- 
Gil’evray. 
Imprisonment for Blinding Birds. 
A Camberwell (England) man, who, accord¬ 
ing to his own confession, had been in the busi¬ 
ness for twenty years, has been sent to prison for 
three months for blinding chaffinches to make 
them sing more sweetly. An ordinary wild 
chaffinch is worth twopence or threepence, but 
when it has been blinded its value is increased 
to two shillings, as the bird, being thus made 
oblivious to its surroundings, will devote the 
whole of its attention to singing. The blinding 
is done by insertng an ordinary needle—not red 
hot, as is generally thought—into the eye, para¬ 
lyzing the optic nerve. The eyes of a bird thus 
blinded do not lose any of their brightriess. 
American Ornithologists’ Union 
Annual Meeting. 
The annual meeting of the American Orni¬ 
thologists’ Union—the twenty-eighth annual Con¬ 
gress — was held this week in Washington, Nov. 
14 to 17. The headquarters were at the Cochran 
Hotel, Fourteenth and K streets. There was an 
unusually full attendance. 
The annual business meeting, open only to Fel¬ 
lows, was held at 8 p. m. on, Monday at the 
Cochran. The public meetings began at 10 a. m. 
on Tuesday and were held in the auditorium of 
the new building of the National Museum. 
At the annual meeting of the Fellows there 
was a larger attendance than common. Those 
present were: Frank M. Chapman, Dr. A. K. 
Fisher, John LI. Sage, Ruthven Deane, Henry 
W. Henshaw, Chief of the Biological Survey; 
Dr. F. A. Lucas, Dr. Chas. W. Richmond, Wit- 
mer Stone, Dr. J. A. Allen, C. F. Bachelder, Wm. 
Brewster, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, A. C. Bent, W. 
W. Cooke, Geo. Bird Grinnell, Dr. E. A. Mearns, 
ID- C. Oberholser, W. H. Osgood, Dr. T. S. Pal¬ 
mer, Wm. Palmer and Dr. Leonhard Stejneger. 
After the minutes of the previous meeting had 
been passed on, Mr. Stone, of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, invited the Union 
on behalf of Philadelphia ornithologists to hold 
their next meeting in that city, and it was de¬ 
cided to do so. 
The reports of the secretary and treasurer 
were read and then the election of officers was 
held. The officers of the previous year were re¬ 
elected: E. W. Nelson, President; Frank M. 
Chapman and Dr. A. K. Fisher, Vice-Presidents; 
John H. Sagg, Secretary; Dr. Jonathan Dwight, 
Jr., New York, Treasurer; together with the 
Council of the previous year headed by Ruthven 
Deane. Amendments to the by-laws were passed, 
of which the most important was a provision 
permitting any Fellow at his own request to be 
transferred by vote of the Council to a list of 
retired Fellows with all the privileges of Fellows 
except that of voting and taking part in the pro¬ 
ceedings of the business meetings. 
Following this came balloting for the election 
of Fellows, none of whom were elected. Four 
members were chosen, John Hooper Bowles, Ned 
Hollister, Waldo Lee McAtee and Edward Royal 
Warren. 
The open meeting began Tuesday, Nov. 15. 
At the morning session the following papers were 
read: 
Courtship of the American Golden-Eye or 
Whistler. William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
Notes on the Great Auk, the Passenger Pig¬ 
eon, and Eskimo Curlew. Edward H. Forbush, 
Boston, Mass. 
The Passenger Pigeon Investigation for 1910. 
Clifton F. Hodge, Worcester, Mass. 
Concealing Coloration. Abbott H. Thayer, 
Monadnock, N. H. 
The afternoon session opened at 2 o'clock, and 
the following papers were offered: 
Two Hawk Families. Illustrated by lantern 
slides, B. S. Bowdish, New York city. 
Some Rare and Interesting Birds of the 
Sunken Lands in Arkansas and Missouri. Illus¬ 
trated by lantern slides. Arthur H. Howell, 
Washington, D. C. 
Some Experiences and Impressions of the 
Cowbird. Illustrated by lantern slides. Wilbur 
F. Smith. South Norwalk, Conn. 
Some Ornithological Results of Biological Sur¬ 
vey Field Work in 1910. Illustrated by lantern 
slides. Vernon Bailey, Washington. D. C. 
A Junco Experience. Illustrated by lantern 
slides. Wilbur F. Smith, South Norwalk, Conn. 
Isochronal Lines of Bird Migration. Illus¬ 
trated by lantern slides. Wells W. Cooke, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 
Bird Life on Mt. Orizaba, Mexico. Illustrated 
by lantern slides. Frank M. Chapman, New York 
city. 
The annual dinner for members and their 
friends was held at 8 o’clock, Tuesday, at the 
Riggs House. After the dinner there was an 
informal reception in the parlors of the Riggs 
House. 
The papers read'on Wednesday were these: 
Overcoming Fear in Birds. Ned Dearbon, 
Washington, D. C. 
Bird Strays in a Great City (New York). 
John Treadwell Nichols, New York city. 
' The Color of the Gular Sac of the Water 
Turkey ( Anhinga anliinga). Arthur T. Wayne, 
Mt. Pleasant, S. C. 
Device for the Convenient Examination of 
Arboreal Birds’ Nests. William Brewster, Cam¬ 
bridge, Mass. 
Mimesis and Rhythm in Bird Songs. P. B. 
Peabody, Blue Rapids, Kan. 
Anliphonv in Bird Songs. Henry Oldys, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 
Photographing Wild Birds by the Lumiere 
Direct Color Process. Illustrated by Auto¬ 
chromes. Frank Overton, M.D., Patchogue, 
N. Y. 
Flashlight and other Bird Photographs. Illus¬ 
trated by lantern slides. George Shiras, 3d, 
Washington, D. C. 
Bird Life on the Tamiahua Lagoon, Vera 
Cruz. Illustrated by lantern slides and motion 
pictures. Frank M. Chapman, New York city. 
Studies of Winter Wildfowl in Lower Louis¬ 
iana. Illustrated by lantern slides. Herbert K. 
Job, West Haven, Conn. 
On Wednesday evening an informal reception 
was held at the home of Dr. and Mrs. C. Hart 
Merriam. 
The meeting concluded by the presentation on 
Thursday morning of the following papers : 
Collation of Frisson’s Genera of Birds with 
those of Linnaeus. J. A. Allen, New York city. 
Nest Life of the Screech Owl. Althea R. 
Sherman, MacGregor, Iowa. 
O11 Some Overlooked Nuptial Plumes of Cer¬ 
tain American and Old World Bitterns. William 
Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
The American Passenger Pigeon. Translated 
from the Original of Peter Kalm. L. M. Gron- 
berger. Washington, D. C. 
The Extermination of the Wild Turkey in the 
State of Virginia. R. W. Slmfeldt, Washington, 
D. C. 
List of Birds Observed in Estes Park, Colo., 
from June 10 to July 18, 1910. O. Widmann, 
St. Louis, Mo. 
The Congress for 1910 was unusually success¬ 
ful and the papers presented were of much 
greater interest than usual. Especially attractive 
were the accounts by Messrs. Shiras and Chap¬ 
man. devoted largely to their recent trip to 
Mexico, aand several of the papers read on 
Tuesday. 
