The Season 



115 



one in more than a decade. The disappoint- 

 ment has probably been accentuated by 

 the natural feeling that so warm a winter 

 season ought to be appreciated by the 

 birds as well as by man. It seems to me 

 more than possible that the extreme cold 

 of the previous winter may be the cause 

 of the scarcity of the birds this winter. — 

 Lynds Jones, Obcrlin, Ohio. 



Minneapolis Region. — Viewed as a 

 whole, the present winter has been a 

 phenomenally mild one in all this region. 

 Thus far there have been only two short 

 spells of cold weather, the first in early 

 January and the second in early February, 

 when for a few days really severe sub- 

 zero weather (twenty-three degrees below 

 at Minneapolis January 3), prevailed, and 

 the gorge of the unfrozen Mississippi 

 below this city was filled with rising vapor. 

 The largest lakes hereabouts did not 

 freeze over until Christmas time, and the 

 ice has been thin all winter. January was 

 the third mildest month in the history 

 of the signal service here and the only 

 time when the month has closed with no 

 snow on the ground. There have been 

 numerous days warm and pleasant like 

 spring, interspersed with days of fog and 

 rain instead of snow. In the northern part 

 of the state there has been considerable 

 snow since late fall, but the marshes are 

 scarcely frozen and Lake Superior has 

 been free from ice all winter, an almost 

 unheard-of thing. 



After the great scarcity of birds hist 

 winter, it has been a special pleasure to 

 bird-lovers to find a goodly number and 

 variety present this season. Pine (Iros- 

 beaks, Evening Grosbeaks, and Bohemian 

 Wa.xwings have been here since December, 

 but not commonly. Flocks of Redpolls 

 have been about ail winter. The mild 

 weather has induced many Tree Sparrows, 

 J uncos, a few Purple Finches, Brown 

 Creepers and Red-breasted Nuthatches to 

 remain with us in sheltered places. One 

 of my students, .Mr. Burton Thayer, 

 reports large flocks of Red-winged Black- 

 birds wintering along the Minnesota 

 River, a few miles south of the citv, and 



since Februar}- i, he lias seen several 

 Horned Larks and one Great Northern 

 Shrike. A few Crows have been about all 

 winter and someone reported flushing a 

 Wilson's Snipe from a spring-hole about 

 February i. Two Cardinal Grosbeaks 

 have been reported to the writer this 

 winter — one at the summer home of Mr. 

 Russell M. Bennett, at Lake Minnetonka 

 near this city, and the other at Faribault, 

 Rice County, reported by Mrs. Guy C. 

 Menefee as coming to her feeding station. 

 The Christmas censuses in the last number 

 of Bird-Lore contain reports from St. 

 Peter and Hutchinson by Mr. H. J. 

 LaDue and Messrs. Avery and Eheim 

 respectively, which contain the following 

 southern birds in addition to the above 

 wintering in Minnesota this season: 

 Mourning Dove, Fox Sparrow, and 

 Mallard Duck. The Fox Sparrow is an 

 addition to the list of Minnesota winter 

 birds. 



.\gain the Snow Bunting and Lapland 

 Longspur have been entirely absent here- 

 abouts. What has become of these birds, 

 formerly so abundant? — Thos.S. Roberts, 

 M.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 

 Minn. 



Kans.^s City Region. — It is difiicult to 

 understand why birds will accept decidedly 

 unfavorable winter conditions in a given 

 region, remaining to starve and freeze 

 throughout an unusually severe season, 

 and will fail to take advantage of entirely 

 favorable conditions in the same territory 

 during other winters. Thus, during the 

 record-breaking winter of 1917-1918 when 

 the Missouri River was locked by ice 

 from its mouth to its source, an extensive 

 tract of bottomland in particular, newly 

 formed by the river's meandering, was 

 the winter home of great numbers of 

 Sparrows of several species, as well as 

 untold thousands of Red-winged Black- 

 birds, of three subspecies. Yet the present 

 winter, mild and open in comparison, sees 

 this same bottom region nearly deserted. 

 The weed patches have greatly increased 

 in number and extent; the thickets and 

 tangles alTord I)etter shelter; the upland 



