The Season 



105 



than spring arrivals, as also a flock of 

 11 Cowbirds which visited Bronx Park, 

 February 5 (preceded by a single female, 

 February 3, leaving a few emaciated 

 stragglers, February 10. — L. S. Crandall). 

 On the afternoon of February 8 the 

 clear, incisive song of a Meadowlark was 

 heard, repeatedly ringing out over the 

 snow at Garden City, though none had been 

 seen for a full month past. — J. T. Nichols, 

 New York City. 



Philadelphia Region. — An 'old- 

 fashioned winter' arrived early in Decem- 

 ber, and, up to this time, February 11, 

 shows no sign of leaving. There have been 

 few days this winter that there was not 

 some snow on the ground. Rainstorms, 

 ice-storms, hail-storms, and snow have 

 followed each other in rapid succession. 

 On February 4 a three-day storm, which 

 at times assumed the proportions of a 

 genuine blizzard, came, leaving 8 inches 

 of snow and hail on the ground, which, 

 owing to the high wind, drifted to con- 

 siderable extent, tying up traffic and delay- 

 ing train service. Seldom, indeed, has a 

 winter produced more beautiful effects in 

 so great profusion: Ice-storms when all 

 nature was wrapped in a diamond-studded 

 robe, only to be supplanted in a day or so 

 by a thick blanket of soft, clinging, wet 

 snow, which, quickly melting under the 

 bright sun, left all brown and bare for a 

 short space, then a heavy fog with a 

 temperature just cold enough to freeze 

 coating everything with a frosty sheet of 

 frozen mist. 



At Seaside Park, N. J., December 21, 

 a few days after the first tight freeze, 

 when Barnegat Bay was found to be 

 frozen from shore to shore, several flocks 

 of Canada Geese, about 60 in all, were 

 noted flying over the Bay, high in the air, 

 heading south. A dozen Black Ducks 

 and as many more Scaups were sitting on 

 thG ice, well out from the shore. These, 

 together with 200 Herring and Ring-billed 

 Gulls, also on the ice, were about all the 

 birds observed on the Bay. A single Snow 

 Bunting was found on the ocean beach; 

 in a growth of cedars a Red Crossbill. 



Doubtless, the winter has taken a more 

 than usual toll of bird-life, yet few dead 

 birds have been found. However, it must 

 be remembered that such objects are meat 

 for the starving and do not lie around very 

 long. It is interesting to discover just 

 where the hungry host of birds procure 

 their food under such adverse weather con- 

 ditions. Starlings and English Sparrows 

 resort in large numbers to the city dumps. 

 Tree Sparrows, Juncos, and White- 

 throated Sparrows, in mixed flocks, seek 

 the open fields where the tall weeds extend 

 above the snow. Song Sparrows, singly and 

 in pairs, are found about the open springs 

 and streams, gleaning close to the water's 

 edge. A Purple Finch chirps in a tangle 

 of honeysuckle, and you discover him 

 feasting on the dried berries. A Cardinal 

 looking much out of place in the top of a 

 tulip poplar, is dining on the few remain- 

 ing seeds. A Ring-necked Pheasant is 

 flushed from his breakfast of burdock 

 seeds, leaving the prickly husks scattered 

 about on the crusty snow. Groups of 

 Crows stand and walk about the edge of 

 the tidal streams, waiting for low water 

 and a streak of bare mud where food may 

 be had. On January 11, while watching 

 a group of winter birds, which in this case 

 was composed of 4 Brown Creepers, 1 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch, and 2 Golden- 

 crowned Kinglets, the Creepers suddenly 

 changed their usual method of tree-trunk 

 investigation and flew from one pine-cone 

 to another, apparently seeking the hiber- 

 nating insects and larvae lodged there, as 

 they only chose the old, black, discolored 

 cones. This may be a common practice 

 when the birds are working among pines, 

 but, nevertheless, it is of interest. 



The rarer northern Finches continue to 

 be the most interesting feature of the season. 

 In addition to those mentioned in the 

 October and November report, Redpolls 

 and Evening Grosbeaks have been reported 

 at several localities, the latter mostly in- 

 dividual birds at widely separated points. 



There appears to be an unusual scarcity 

 of Winter Wrens, and Northern Shrikes 

 seem to be entirely absent in this district. 



Truly, the descendants of the Rock 



