IO CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



bcrt K. Job, Harry W. Flint, J. B. Robertson, Clarence R. 

 Hooker, Aretas A. Saunders, Clifford H. and Dwight B. Pang- 

 burn, Philip L. Buttrick, and Alfred W. Honywill, Jr., of New 

 Haven; Lewis B. Woodruff and Prof. C. C. Trowbridge, of New 

 York ; William H. Hoyt, Louis H. Porter, and John Schaler, of 

 Stamford; Dr. E. H. Eames, Henry W. Beers, and George L. 

 Hamlin, of Bridgeport ; Jesse C. A. Meeker, of Danbury ; E. H. 

 Austin, of Gaylordsville ; H. Cornelius and Robert C. Judd, of 

 Bethel; James H. Hill, of New London; Alanson Ganung, of 

 West Haven ; Willard E. Treat, of East Hartford ; C. G. Hart, 

 of East Berlin ; and many others ; who have contributed records 

 of value. Mr. Walter R. Nichols, often mentioned in Dr. Mer- 

 riam's catalogue, also gave his ready help, but him our thanks 

 can no longer reach ; and the same is true of the late Mr. E. Sey- 

 mour Woodruff, whose initials appear so frequently in the fol- 

 lowing pages. A careful and conscientious observer, with won- 

 derfully keen eyes and ears, an enthusiastic and able naturalist, 

 a firm friend and a delightful companion, he was taken at the 

 beginning of a most promising career, leaving all who knew him 

 to mourn him. We wish also to add our tribute to the faithful- 

 ness and reliability of Judge John N. Clark, who died in 1903, 

 and whose letters and published records are often quoted in this 

 Bulletin. A thorough and painstaking ornithologist, he did more 

 perhaps than any one else to increase our knowledge of the breed- 

 ing habits of certain birds along the southern border of Con- 

 necticut. 



That this list is in many ways unsatisfactory and incomplete 

 the authors realize all too well ; but they hope that it may be a 

 stimulus to others to fill up the gaps by conscientious collecting, 

 never being satisfied with an " opera-glass record " of any spe- 

 cies that is at all rare, or with which they are not perfectly 

 familiar. Field-glasses are of great assistance in the study of 

 the habits of birds, and in identifying species with which one is 

 already familiar; but every field ornithologist knows that the 

 play of light and shadow often distorts colors and size so that 

 the bird in the hand may prove a very different species from 

 what it appeared in the tree. Therefore records of species out 

 of their accustomed habitat should always be received with doubt 

 unless accompanied by the bird itself. No one need fear that 



