25° 



Bird - Lore 



Warbler, which were discovered b}- Mr. 

 Roland, arc the first records the writer 

 has for Camden County, N. J. The 

 Kentucky Warbler, while very common 

 in all the creek valleys of the Pennsyl- 

 vania side of the Delaware, rarely is found 

 on the New Jersey side, for some un- 

 accountable reason. 



An interesting feature of May was the 

 presence here at Camden of an unusual 

 number of shore-birds. Besides the com- 

 mon migrants, such as the Yellow-legs, 

 Solitary Sandpiper, etc., there were 

 observed during the last two weeks of May 

 large flocks of Least and Semi-palmated 

 Sandpipers and a dozen or more Semi- 

 palmated Plovers, and on May 21 a 

 Turnstone and two White-rumped Sand- 

 pipers were noted; these, in addition to the 

 Red-backed Sandpiper above mentioned, 

 make a very surprising list of birds for 

 this immediate neighborhood. East and 

 northeast winds, with rain, during the 

 first two weeks of the month are no doubt 

 a contributing factor when accounting for 

 the presence of these birds. 



A Holbcell's Grebe, noted May 13, and 

 two Yellow-bellied Flycatchers May 25, 

 are uncommon enough to mention. 



The last migrants noted were an Olive- 

 backed Thrush, May 30, and a Blackpoll 

 Warbler, June i . 



Mr. Wm. Evans, of Marlton, informed 

 me today (June 6) that up to the present 

 only one Martin had appeared at his 

 Martin-house; and in a recent auto trip 

 through South Jersey he saw many houses 

 but all apparently vacant. Continuous 

 wet weather has no doubt a fatal effect on 

 numbers of Martins. — Julian K. Potter, 

 Camden, N. J. 



Washington Region. — The ornitho- 

 logical situation about W'ashington during 

 April and May was of considerable inter- 

 est. Notwithstanding the rather low 

 average temperature, the bird migration 

 was in general somewhat early. The 

 Hooded Warbler broke all previous records 

 by appearing on April 13, on which date 

 it was noted b}' Mr. A. W'etmore. Its 

 previous earliest record was April 19, 



1896. The Nighthawk, of which the 

 previous earliest date was April 19, 1877, 

 was reported on April 18 by Dr. H. H. T. 

 Jackson. In addition to these, many other 

 species came a day or two in advance of 

 their normal arrival, and the follow'ing 

 several days ahead: Yellow-throated 

 Warbler, April 6; Chimney Swift, April 7; 

 House Wren, April 10; Whip-poor-will, 

 April 12; Black and White Warbler, 

 April, 12; Bank Swallow, April 13; 

 Yellow-throated Vireo, April 17; Parula 

 Warbler, April 20; Bay-breasted Warbler, 

 May 4; Black-billed Cuckoo, May 4. 



A few, however, were a little lal:e, such 

 as the Northern Water-thrush, which came 

 on May 3, whereas it should appear on 

 April 28; and the Purple Martin, the 

 arrival of which was noted on April 6, 

 but which normally arrives about March 



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Most of the winter residents left for the 

 north about their ordinary time, but 

 among the exceptions might be noted the 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, which was ob- 

 served until May 13, and the Horned 

 Grebe, which was seen on the same date. 

 Both these birds remained thus fully three 

 weeks beyond their usual time of depar- 

 ture. 



Birds, on the whole, have been numerous 

 in individuals, fairly so in species, and 

 good records have been made by all-day 

 observers. On May 3 and 4 a very pro- 

 nounced movement of birds took place, 

 this migration wave bringing during these 

 two days the first arrivals of twenty-seven 

 species, together with a goodly number of 

 individuals of these and others. The 

 height of migration this spring occurred 

 about May 12, but soon thereafter, 

 particularly beyond the i8th of the month, 

 the numbers of transients rapidly dim- 

 inished, and few remained until the last of 

 May. 



It has been a really good season for 

 birds, in fact, not far from what might be 

 considered normal in this region. A 

 number of species were considerably more 

 numerous than usual, some of them sur- 

 prisingly so. For several days the Scarlet 

 Tanagers were everywhere about the 



