158 STATEN IsLAND INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
the woodchucks on my farm were as safe as I could make them. 
In return I was amply rewarded by watching their life and habits, 
and in this way grew closer to my humble little tenants. 
The meeting of May 23, 1924, was held in the Bird Club Cabin 
in the woods near the Moravian Cemetery. 
While supper and coffee were being prepared two black ducks 
came to the pond in front of the cabin. One of the birds flew 
away directly, whereupon the remaining one quacked loudly for 
some time. After swimming about a while it too flew away. 
Mr. Wm. T. Davis and Mr. Howard H. Cleaves gave a list of 
the 35 birds they had seen that day, mostly in the Clove Valley. 
There were a considerable number of olive-backed thrushes. The 
most interesting was a female chewink that uttered a series of 
low notes quite different from the usual ones familiar to them. 
Mr. Davis stated that his earliest date for a monarch butterfly 
this year was May 5, Tottenville, where he had seen two. On 
May 6, he had seen another at St. George. 
Mr. Charles W. Leng gave an account of the explorers of the 
Antarctic from the early voyages of Magellan and Cook to those 
of Shackelton, Scott, and Amundsen. 
Mr. C. J. Albrecht of the American Museum of Natural History 
described his experiences in Bering Sea and also above the Arctic 
Circle in 1913 on an expedition in quest of natural history speci- 
mens. 
