190 THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1921 



tlie first but in all of the second five lists is a phenomenon of 

 time rather than of locality. The np-stream conntrv seems 

 to have liar<lly a point (other than that already mentioned) 

 of siiperiorit}^ over the lower, althongh from general ex- 

 perience it max be said that at least the worm -eating 

 warbler is more often seen there. 



Of the birds seen on onh^ one of the ten ti-ii)s, it nmy 

 be said that the grebes and dncks, the coot and strictly 

 migrant sliorebirds are of decidedly irregnlar occurrence at 

 the season in point; the bitterns are elusive; and the Avood- 

 cock and hawks locally restricted si)ecies in this their 

 breeding season ; the black-billed cnckoo, vesper s])arrow 

 and bine grosbeak are not only local bnt rare breeders ; 

 the purple finch and ruby-crowned kinglet are near the 

 end of their si)ring stay; and the mourning warbler is a 

 rare migrant, one certainly not apt to be seen more than 

 once in ten trips. 



As to species not seen, but which reasonably might 

 have been expected, the following may be mentioned : ring- 

 billed gull, wood duck, rufTed grouse, screech owl, great 

 horned owl, yellow-bellied fIjTatcher, warl)ling vireo, and 

 the Tennessee warbler. In addition to these the red cross- 

 bill, siskin, junco, Bachman's sparrow, Lincoln's sparrow, 

 solitary vireo, yellow palm warbler and red-breasted nut- 

 hatch certainlj^ are possibilities. The composite list of 

 birds actually seen on the ten trips is 146 species; 8 prob- 

 abilities and 9 i)ossibilities (great rarities absolutely ex- 

 cluded )have just been mentioned, so it may be seen that 

 on a day in the very height of migration in a good year, 

 with all luck attending, an exceedingly good bird list 

 might be compiled. 



But luck in all directions never does occur simultane- 

 ously. At the end of a long day's ti-ami> it g-enerally is 

 true that some more or less common birds have not been 

 seen; the list is poor in woodpeckers, or liawks or water- 

 birds, or thrushes; conditions are seldom right for all 

 groups of birds on one day. Some fairly common species 

 even are elusive, esi)ecially those breeding at this season. 

 Pairs are scattered here and there at their nesting sites, 

 and one must actuallv enter their domain to find them. 



