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 60 Bird - Lore

in ﬁeld work with a view to making verbal reports or reading formal papers at the meetings. Possible publication of these in ‘ The Auk ‘ was held up as an inducement to greater zeal. ‘

Actives must reside within twenty-ﬁve miles of Philadelphia. NIeetings are now regularly held in the ornithological room of the Academy of Natural Sciences. at 8 P. 51.. on the ﬁrst and third Thursdays of each month, from October to May. inclusive.

Visitors of the male sex may attend any of our meetings on invitation of a member. It was at one time debated that a form of honorary lady mem- bership should be instituted. but the establishment of Audubon and other societies about that time seemed to cover the ground so well that no action in this matter is ever likely to be taken.

A corresponding membership was instituted later and has been proved of value to all concerned. At present writing there are :5 actives. I honorary (Dr. Samuel \V. “'oodhouse). 55 associates and 29 correspondents in good standing on the roll. Of these an average of twenty to twentyﬁve attend meetings with great regularity. Any one versed in the ephemeral or fossilized nature of natural history societies and kindred associations may well inquire what are the secrets of the success of the D. V. O. C. as above indicated. In order of importance these may be listed as fol- lows:

1. An executive and philanthropic member (not necessarily an oﬁcer), whose specialty is ornithology and whose whole time is devoted to that pursuit. combining with his business duties in this line the interests of the Club.

2. Oﬁicial recognition by the Academy of Natural Sciences, which furnishes accommodation for private and public meetings and the Club collections: also the use of specimens illustrative of the exercises of the meetings.

3. The Club collection of life-grouping of birds of the Delaware Valley, taken and prepared by Club members and assigned a separate space for exhibition in the )Iuseum of the Academy.

4.. A membership. based primarily on continued accessions of amateurs and so graded as to incite all to eﬁort.

5. A periodical Club publication of proceedings in which all trans- actions worthy of record not elsewhere published are preserved.

6. Stimulation to original work. among young and old, of such a character as will merit publication in current zoological literature.

7. Publication of an annotated list of the birds of Eastern Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey, based primarily on field work prosecuted syste- matically by club members.

8. A programme which announces two or more exercises specially prepared for each stated meeting of the club. These, as a rule, are to