American Ornithologists' Union
The seventeenth annual congress of the American Ornithologists' Union convened at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, on November 13, 1899. At the business meeting held on the night of that day the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Robert Ridgway; vice presidents, C. Hart Merriam and C. B. Cory; secretary, John H. Sage; treasurer, William Dutcher; councilors, C. F. Batchelder, F. M. Chapman, Ruthven Deane, J. Dwight, Jr., A. K. Fisher, T. S. Roberts, Witmer Stone. Two corresponding and eighty-two associate members were elected.
The program for the three days' public sessions, on November 14-16, included the following papers:
Notes on the Flammulated Screech Owls, Harry C. Oberholser; Three Years' Migration data on City Hall Tower, Philadelphia, Wm. L. Bailey; A Quantitative Study of Variation in the Smaller American Shrikes, Reuben M. Strong; The Habits and Structure of Harris' Cormorant, R. E. Snodgrass and F. A. Lucas; Bering Sea Arctic Snowflake (Passerina hyperborea) on its breeding grounds, C. Hart Merriam; On the Plumages of Certain Boreal Birds, Frank M. Chapman; On the Perfected Plumage of Somateria spectabilis, Arthur H. Norton; The Summer Molting Plumage of Eider Ducks, Witmer Stone; An Oregon Fish Hawk Colony, Vernon Bailey; Exhibition of a series of field sketches made from absolutely fresh birds, showing the true life colors of the soft parts, mostly in the breeding season, Louis Agassiz Fuertes; The Sequence of Plumages and Molts in Certain Families of North American Birds, Jonathan Dwight, Jr.; The Ranges of Hylocichla fuscescens and Hylocichla f. salicicola, Reginald Heber Howe, Jr.; On the occurrence of the Egyptian Goose (Chenalopex ægyptiaca) in North America, Frank C. Kirkwood; Notes on the Habits of the Great Mexican Swift (Hemiprocne zonaris), Sam'l N. Rhoads; Further remarks on the Relationships of the Grackles of the Sub-genus Quiscalus, Frank M. Chapman; Audubon's Letters to Baird—compiled from Copies of the originals kindly furnished by Miss Lucy H. Baird, Witmer Stone; A Peculiar Sparrow Hawk, William Palmer; The Requirements of a Faunal List, W. E. Clyde Todd; Report of the A. O. U. Committee on Protection of N. A. Birds, Witmer Stone; An account of the Nesting of Franklin's Gull (Larus franklinii) in Southern Minnesota, illustrated by lantern slides, Thos. S. Roberts; Bird Studies with a Camera, illustrated by lantern slides, Frank M. Chapman; Home Life of some Birds, illustrated by lantern slides, Wm. Dutcher; Slides—series of Kingfisher, Gulls, etc., Wm. L. Baily; The Effects of Wear upon Feathers, illustrated by lantern slides, Jonathan Dwight, Jr.; Exhibition of lantern slides of Birds, Birds' Nests and Nesting Haunts, from Nature, members; Language of the Birds, Nelson R. Wood; A New Wren from Alaska, Harry C. Oberholser; The Molt of the Flight feathers in various Orders of Birds, Witmer Stone; Some Cuban Birds, Jno. W. Daniels, Jr.; On the Orientation of Birds, Capt. Gabriel Reynaud, French army; On the Habits of the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus cristatus), George K. Cherrie.
A Dictionary of Birds. By Alfred Newton, assisted by Hans Gadow, and others. Cheap issue, unabridged. London, Adam and Charles Black, 1893-96. [New York, The Macmillan Co.] 8vo, pp. xii+1,088, numerous line cuts. Price, $5.
Bird students should be grateful to the publishers of this invaluable work for issuing it in an edition which places it within the reach of all.
It is not necessary for us to add our meed of praise to what is universally conceded to be "the best book ever written about birds." To those of Bird-Lore's readers who have not had the fortune to examine this or the preceding edition, we may say that the work is based on Professor Newton's article 'Birds' in the Encyclopædia Britanica which, with the coöperation of eminent specialists, has been enlarged and augmented to make an ornithological dictionary of over 1,000 pages; an indispensable work of reference to every student of ornithology who will find in its pages an immense amount of information not elsewhere obtainable.—F. M. C.