144 The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



THE SPRING MIGRATION OF BIRDS AT OTTAWA OF 



THE YEAR 1906, COMPARED WITH THAT 



OF OTHER SEASONS 



By C. W. G. Eifrig. 



The winter of 1905-06 was in several respects a remarkable 

 one. There was less snow and fewer days of severe cold weather 

 than for many preceding- winters. It was more open and mild, 

 than for many past seasons. All this was somewhat changed at a 

 time when one expects to see the end ot winter come in earnest, 

 in March. There was more snow and cold then, than apparently 

 had heen in the previous wintei months combined, or as someone 

 told the writer : Winter only commenced in March. That such 

 unusual weather conditions would naturally tend to modify biolo- 

 gical conditions in the plant and animal kingdoms, was to be ex- 

 pected. All nature-lovers, the botanists, entomologists, etc , 

 therefore eagerly looked forward into the now sadly retarded 

 spring, to see how this would be made manifest in their several 

 lines of observation. In no class of biota, however, would the 

 effect of such unusual climatic conditions be more noticeable than 

 in the birds, as that fascinating, mysterious natural phenomenon 

 of their migration is in many species greatly dependent on the 

 weather. The ornithologist therefore was especially on the alet 

 this spring to see how the coming of his feathered friends had been 

 affected by the queer ending of the winter and beginning of th e 

 vernal season. 



One somewhat unexplainable fact was noted by them already 

 in winter. One would think, that in such a mild winter as the last 

 was for its greater part, there would be more of our usual perma- 

 nent residents amongst birds," or of the erratic Canadian winter 

 birds seen, or at least as many, as in the more severe winters. 

 But the reverse was true While in the severe winter of 1903-4 

 pine grosbeaks were plentiful here all winter, and 1904-5 Canada 

 jays and sharpshinned hawks, together with, as the appended list 

 shows, occasional downy woodpeckers, pine siskins, redpolls, 

 brown-breasted nuthatches, and the everpresent jolly little chikadee, 

 these and similiar birds were last winter conspicuous by their ab- 

 sence in the silent wintry woods. 



