ALL TIMES FOR SHOOTING. 25 



steady work ; o»e bird new to a, locality would repay a week's 

 search; a day is happily spent that shows me an}^ bird that I 

 never saw alive before. How then can you, with so much 

 befoi'e you, keep out of the woods another minute ? 



§16. All times are good times to go a-shooting ; but some 

 are better than others, a. Time of year. In all temperate 

 latitudes, the spring and fall — periods of migration with most 

 birds — are the most profitable seasons for collecting. Not 

 only are birds then most numerous, both as species and as 

 individuals, and most active, so as to be the more readily found, 

 but they include a far larger proportion of rare and valuable 

 kinds. In every locality in this country the periodical visit- 

 ants outnumber the permanent residents ; in most regions the 

 number of regular migrants, that simply pass through in the 

 spring and fall, equals or exceeds that of either of the sets of 

 species that come from the south in spring to breed during the 

 summer, or from the north to spend the winter. Far north, of 

 course, on or near the limit of the vernal migration, where 

 there are few if any migrants passing through, and where the 

 winter birds are extremely few, nearly all the bird fauna is 

 composed of " summer visitants ;" far south, in this country, 

 the reverse is somewhat the case, though with many qualifica- 

 tions. Between these extremes, what is conventionally known 

 as "a season" means the period of the vernal or autumnal 

 migration. For example, the body of birds present in the 

 District of Columbia (where I collected for several years) in 

 the two months from April 20th to May 20th, and from Sep- 

 tember 10th to October 10th, is undoubtedly greater, as far as 

 individuals are concerned, than the total number found there at 

 all other seasons of the year together. As for species, the num- 

 ber of migrants about equals that of summer visitants ; the 

 permanent residents equal the winter residents, both these being 

 fewer than either of the first mentioned sets ; while the irregular 

 visitors, or stragglers, that complete the bird fauna, are about, 

 or rather less than, one-half as many as the species of either of 

 the other categories. About "Washington, therefore, I would 



