Bird Clubs in America 15
president gave out at each meeting a particular species to form a subject of discussion at the next. Special work of one kind or another has from time to time been undertaken by the Club. About the last of 1887, for instance, a continuous discussion began of the distribution of birds in eastern Massachusetts, groups of species being taken up at each meeting in systematic order. Some years later the desiderata in our knowledge of the life histories of New England birds were discussed systematically in a long series of meetings. These plans for regular work have served good purposes in their day, but the genius of the Club seems to demand as a rule a less formal method of expression, and at most of the meetings the programme consists of a paper or talk by one of the members on some subject that has occupied his attention, followed by a general discussion of the subject, the evening ending with miscellaneous notes from the recent observations of the various members.
I have spoken of the informality of the Club's meeting, but I will say a word more on that point because I think it is a characteristic feat— ure. There is, of course, some semblance of parliamentary procedure, but members generally feel free to talk directly to one another without the fiction of addressing the chair. One result of this informality is the frank questioning that greets the member who chances for any reason to make a statement which seems to the others at all open to question. It very naturally happens occasionally that an eager young observer may allow his enthusiasm to get the better of his sober judgment. and at such times he must expect to be pinned down to his facts and cross-questioned shrewdly. Only the other day a member of many years' standing spoke of this habit of the Club's, and of an experience -of his own in his younger days, when a certain rash statement was met by a fusillade of questions and remarks that was disconcerting, to say the least. He never forgot it, he said, and had ever since been more careful of his ground when addressing the Club. This wholesome custom of friendly catechization is not infrequently spoken of as one of the Club’s real services to its members.
For many years, by the courtesy of its president, lVIr. William Brew— ster, the meetings of the club have been held in his private museum, where. amid surroundings which are ideal for ornithologists and where smoking is allowed—and encouraged—the members have come to feel very much at home. The accompanying flashlight picture, taken at a recent regular meeting and without previous announcement, shows a corner of the mu- seum. As some of the most distinguished members were not included, the picture cannot be regarded as one of the Nuttall Club, but only as of a
representative meeting of it. In the examination which I have been permitted to make of the min- utes of the Club, I have noted a few matters of record which for one reason
