126 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



twenty-five. We extract two passages from Messrs. Coues and 

 Prentniss's general remarks on tlie Columbian avifauna : — 



" Though the number of birds which are resident throughout 

 the year and those which breed here is considerable, they are 

 few in comparison with those which pass through during their 

 spring and autumn migrations and remain for a longer or 

 shorter time each season. The number of species, indeed, is 

 not greater, but the individuals of each are very numerous. It 

 is on this account that for a month or so during the spring 

 and autumn (from about the 20th April to the 20th May, 

 and from the 1st September to the middle of October) the 

 collector is so amply repaid for his pains, while at other times 

 oruithologizing, except for some particular birds, is hardly worth 

 the time and trouble. So numerous, indeed, are individuals 

 of most of the migratory species, that at the height of the 

 season in spring we have collected in a walk before breakfast 

 from forty to fifty specimens of various species of Warblers, 

 Thrushes, Flycatchers, Finches, &c. As an instance of the 

 number of birds which pass through the District on their way 

 north to breed, compared with those which remain with us 

 during the summer, may be cited the Wood- Warblers, or 

 Dendroica. Of the twelve or thirteen Wood- Warblers found 

 more or less abundantly in the spring and fall, only thi'ee are 

 known to breed here. The same might be affirmed of other 

 birds, as the Thrushes, Flycatchers, Sandpipers, &c. * * * * 



" A circumstance which has considerable influence on the ap- 

 pearance of birds in the immediate vicinity is the presence of a 

 large city. This is most strikingly shown in the case of the 

 Ducks and other water-fowl, to which the attention of the sports- 

 man is especially directed. The peculiar character of Chesapeake 

 Bay and its tributaries renders them the favourite winter resort of 

 nearly all the species of Anatidce ; but the incessant persecutions 

 to which these birds are subjected have effected a material dimi- 

 nution of their numbers, and caused a great part of them to retire 

 to the bogs and inlets of more southern shores. The same is 

 true, though less markedly, of various shy and solitary birds 

 (as for example the Hylotomus pileatus), which are gradually re- 

 tiring with the clearing up of the forests to more mountainous 



