12 BULLETIN No. 34. 



the year. The course taken was a Httle out of the ordinary 

 for this ail day winter horizon, yet intended to cover as varied 

 a landscape as the country affords. 



Two small woods, a weed grown thicket and several open 

 fields yielded but four species on the way to the head waters 

 of the Beaver Creek. This was partly due to the early hour 

 of the morning, partly to the sharp and brisk south-west wind, 

 partly to the temperature of 18° . The clouds made the twilight 

 linger until nearly eight o'clock, when they partly lifted and did 

 not return until four in the afternoon. 



The course led me down the stream to within two miles of 

 Lake Erie, when a mile across country to the west gave me the 

 birds which can be found only in the dense thickets which sur- 

 rounded and cover the sand-stone knobs so characteristic of the 

 northern part of our countv. Where these have notbeen quar- 

 ried, or at one time quarried and later abandoned, the thicket 

 loving birds find a paradise. 



From this series of woods and thickets one emerges upon 

 the lake shore or the lake swamps as he prefers. I chose to 

 visit the swamps first where disappointment awaited me in the 

 entire absence of Cardinal, which had failed to put in an appear- 

 ance along the course of the stream. Song Sparrows were 

 numerous here, but Junco and Tree Sparrow were absent. 



The three mile walk along the lake front treated me to a 

 disappointment and two surprises. No American Herring Gulls 

 could be seen anywhere even there was little or no ice beyond 

 the shore pack ice. An approaching train started an American 

 Merganser from the water just beyond th.e shore pack ice. A 

 happy company of seven Snovvtlakes played hide and seek 

 with me over the rail-road embankment. Why do their voices 

 and every action b'jspeak the frozen North ? 



It seems a little strange that but a single Sparrow Hawk' 

 and a single Prairie Horned Lark should have been seen during 

 the whole day. The splitary American Herring Gull was beating 

 its way over the Lorain Harbor toward the lake while 1 waited 

 for the trolley car. The two Crows and two companies of 

 Meadowlarks were somewhat of a surprise. They are niore 

 often absent than present during the first weeks of the year. 



