34 * The Ottawa Naturalist. [August 



later than UvSual but this year it turned up only on May 15th, 

 and then one or two half-hearted specimens only. The tiny 

 hummingbird, due here between May 10th and 15th, was this 

 year not recorded by the writer before May 30th. The wood 

 pewee, with the chebec, a common breeder in our city shade trees, 

 who also unmistakably betrays his presence as soon as here, 

 came this year only on June 1st, other years it is here May 17th. 

 The last regular migrant in these parts,who comes here in numbers, 

 and whose presence can not be overlooked owing to his unique 

 call or song, is the blackpoll warbler. Their advance guard 

 usually arrives about May 20th but this year not before 

 the 31st. Thus the uncongenial' climatic conditions delayed 

 these 11 species from four to seventeen days, an. average of 

 10 5-11 days. Other vears the days about May 23rd produce the 

 largest waves of migrants, but this year the first large wave 

 struck the gardens along our city limits on May 29th, thus show- 

 ing a delay, if looked at from this standpoint, of six days. 



Another notable factor is the decrease in numbers. The first 

 arrivals of the above mentioned species were miostly single birds 

 or at least in lesser numbers than in other years. And, whereas, 

 in other years, the species given above become common in most 

 cases two or three davs after their advance guard has arrived, 

 this was not the case during the last cold May. The first comers 

 were, in many instances, the sole representatives of their species, 

 in fact, some were seen and then not again for many days. Of 

 course, in most cases, the normal number was reached by late 

 and numerous accretions, but in many in.stances the usual 

 abundance was never reached. This holds good in the case of the 

 chimney swift, brown thrushes, whippoorwill, hummingbird, 

 scarlet tanager, and very noticeably so in the case of the blackpoll 

 warbler. Of course, there were nevertheless large waves of 

 warblers in certain restricted localities during the last few days in 

 May, and some who happened to get amongst them would say 

 that they had never seen so many birds, etc., but I am convinced 

 that there is not nearly the usual number of warblers, especially 

 here, this summer. So, admitting the great m.ortality which 

 decimated the ranks of the warblers fearfully after they did come 

 here, also the possibility of many having retraced their steps 

 for a little distance to the south that the tree swallows did this 

 earlier in the season, T am almost positive still the fact can- 

 not well be contraverted that the exceptional cold in May did 

 decrease the numbers of migrants to some extent, in many cases 

 seriously so. 



But nature often likes to upset pet theories, often very 

 elabornte ones, so there are also some exceptions to these two 



