BIRDS OBSERVED IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



When this list was nearly ready for publication I discovered a 

 man who has done more field-work in ornithology in this County 

 than any other person, myself included — Mr. Charles H. Williams, 

 of Winchester. For more than thirty years he has studied and 

 collected, and the amount of his information, notes and specimens 

 is astonishing. Though a man of culture, he has done this in 

 obscurity and without publishing anything, purely from love of 

 Nature. His written data and specimens abundantly prove his 

 rare records. Unfortunately when I visited him his collections 

 and notes were packed preparatory to moving, so that in many 

 instances he could not give me exact dates of records, but he has 

 them in most cases. This "List" and myself are both greatly 

 his debtor. 



It seems remarkable that so beautifully diversified a region 

 should have been so neglected by students of birds. The whole 

 County is an area of magnificent hills, deep valleys, rapid streams, 

 everywhere picturesque. Bantam Lake and Twin Lakes are the 

 principal bodies of water, but there are many smaller lakes and 

 ponds. If my home had been accessible to the larger lakes I 

 should certainly have added various other water-birds to this list. 

 The region belongs to the Alleghanian faunal area, but the higher 

 elevations with their hemlock, mountain laurel, occasional black 

 spruce, and cold sphagnum bogs, afi^ord a mingling of the Cana- 

 dian fauna, and the deep valleys of the Carolinian. There is 

 still a fine field for original investigation amid this glorious scenery, 

 and a number of other species can surely be added to this list, the 

 ferreting out of which oft'ers fine incentive and splendid "sport" 

 to those who are so fortunate as to reside, permanently or tem- 

 porarily, in these delightful surroundings. 



Holboell's Grebe. Colymbus holboellii. A rare migrant and 

 winter visitor. I saw one which had been shot in a small 

 pond in Kent, in April, 1904, and know of another taken in 

 Litchfield. Early in February, 1908, one was found by 

 Mr. George A. Clute alive in his yard on the outskirts of 

 Sherman, close to the County line. 

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