152 



THE OOLOOIST. 



warblers seem to me somewhat indif- 

 ferent to cold, but snow inspires 

 alarm even in the latest, and a gener- 

 al rapid southward movement — the 

 Myrtle excepted. They care nothing 

 for the snow in spring if the mercury 

 is above freezing and the food supply 

 not affected. The only Blue-winged 

 Warbler seen this year was located 

 by its song and in a blinding snow 

 storm early in May. I also followed 

 and watched five other species dur- 

 ing that storm and they totally disre- 

 garded it. Of the warblers noted Oc- 

 tober 14, three species were passing 

 more than a month later than the 

 bulk of their kind. In a measure, this 

 is owing to early species getting in- 

 to flocks of later kinds and being in- 

 fluenced by them. Another apparent 

 reason is the reluctance of some adult 

 birds to leave their summer quarters. 

 A few adult male Yellow Warblers 

 remain here at least two weeks after 

 the last young bird has departed but. 

 as the last of certain northern species 

 may be represented by either or both 

 adult and young, it would seem as if 

 some of the lingering adults influen- 

 ced a few juveniles to remain with 

 them and sometimes left the trusting 

 youngsters far in the rear in the wild 

 panic to flee the country. 



Satisfactory data, relative to the 

 general distribution of autumn war- 

 blers, can only be acquired by the lib- 

 eral use of a gun. Little reliance can 

 be placed in field-glass observation 

 and I doubt if anyone, familiar with 

 the family, is willing to accept such 

 records as positive in unusual cases, 

 as when birds are exceptionally early, 

 late or rare. Of course the adult males 

 of a few species can be identified with 

 certainty and a bird student, with 

 enough knowledge to have any busi- 

 ness in the Peld, should know the 

 Myrtle in all plumages but he can get 

 no accurate idea of the number of 

 species in his neighborhood, their rel- 



ative abundance, etc. In just one au- 

 tumn I established a better knowledge 

 of the warblers here than other par- 

 ties in fifteen years of field-glass ob- 

 servation. I mention this because my 

 admission in a previous paper, of hav- 

 ing taken specimens aroused the iu- 

 dignation of a certain class and ap- 

 pealing letters were sent to the state 

 game warden and others. I was a 

 born lover of birds and have always 

 taken an interest in their welfare, but 

 when it becomes necessary to secure 

 them in order to do certain work well, 

 I feel justified in doing so. However, 

 discussion is futile but the above 

 class should know that birds will be 

 taken for some time to come. Prob- 

 ably the most effective method of 

 determining routes is "bird tagging," 

 and sooner or later a society will be 

 organized to take up this work, and 

 effective results will depend almost 

 entirely on birds secured; further- 

 more, much material is at present re- 

 quired to permanently establish the 

 subspecies and define their ranges. It 

 is true that some disapprove of this 

 "hair splitting" but for no good rea- 

 son that I can see, except they are 

 not interested in the subject or know 

 nothing in regard to it. However, in 

 this, as in other branches, you cannot 

 suppress the taste for knowledge and 

 it is better to work out the problem 

 soon as possible than allow it to drag 

 along with forms accepted and then 

 rejected as in the past. In his great 

 work, 'The Birds of Middle and North 

 America,' Prof. Ridgway laments the 

 lack of material not only in the fore- 

 going connection but even in estab- 

 lishing plumage variations of actual 

 species. Without further illustrating 

 the necessity of securing the birds at 

 the present time suppose we look into 

 the future centuries and we find a 

 subject of great interest requiring a 

 mass of new material. I refer to dif- 

 ferentiation or modification. In order 



