186 THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1921 



uonnal envii'onnient and we watched it for some time as 

 it repeated a song none of us had ever even dreamed an 

 oven-bird could sing. Cases are on record of redstarts 

 singing so abnormal!}' as to canse collectors to piirsne 

 these individuals for a long- time and even then find 

 it necessary to collect them to detennine the species. 



Notes are of the utmost service, of course, in locating 

 birds, and in some cases are a great help in making field 

 identifications, as in the case of red-tailed and red-shoul- 

 dered hawks, or almost a necessit}^, as in the case of the 

 fish crow and common crow, and the species of Empidonaic. 

 Nevertheless, as a, policy it is safer and surely it is a much 

 greater pleasure and satisfaction to actually see eveiy spe- 

 cies. Finally, to show, by anecdote, the possibilities of 

 blundering, in identifying notes, 1 may relate an experience 

 of certain members of the AVashington Biologists' Field 

 Club. "While seated on the porch of their house on Plum- 

 mers Island, Md., one wai-m summer evening, they heard 

 a sound from the direction of the canal back of them and 

 distant some 300 yards, (xuesses as to the source of the 

 sound by various naturalists in the company, named the 

 following animals: bullfrog, night-heron, and cow. Notes 

 of the tree-toad also have frequently been mistaken for 

 those of the red-bellied woodpecker. Is not the moral ob- 

 vious ? To be sure, see your bird ! 



The equipment found most useful on the bird trips 

 here described has been S-power prism binoculars, with 

 a 30-power telescope in reserve for " long-shots," particu- 

 larly at water-birds. One or moi-e collecting pistols have 

 always been accessible. Concluding the remarks on the 

 manner in which these excursions have been conducted, 

 we present, in tabular form, statements of the route of 

 each trip, names of the observers, and the number of and 

 names of species seen. 



1907, May 15. Cleveland Park. Piney Branch, Rock Creek, 

 Chevy Chase Circle, D. C. Glen Echo, Md., Georgetown, D. C, 

 Roslyn and Four-mile Run Hill, Va., E. A. Preble, W. L. McAtee. 

 Number of species seen, 83. 



1908, May 14. Piney Branch, Rock Creek, by street car to 

 Benning, by boat Eastern Branch, to Licking Banks. D. C, Bladens- 

 burg. Md.. then on foot to hills to eastwai'd and return to Benning, 



