50 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 78. 



white had attained in the summer of 1008 in this locality may be 

 formed from the fact, fhat on every day in July, and on all but 

 five in August the cocks frequently were heard calling, often three 

 or four of them at the same time. Upon the advance of winter 

 some coveys came close about the farm-house, in one case the Bob- 

 whites ate with the chickens and roosted at night under evergreen 

 trees nearby; in another place they fed with the pigs in the barn- 

 yard. In that winter and the following one. heavy snow-falls 

 were blown into deep drifts that sealed the fate of many a Bob- 

 white; even the semi-domesticated ones disappeared. So wide- 

 spread was their destruction that in the whole year of 1010. I 

 only once saw and heard a Bobwhite. The same thing was true 

 of the year 1911. Barely a few of the species have been reported 

 by others. The birds were not hunted by gunners. Tt is possible 

 that some disease was responsible for a portion of the dcatlis. but 

 there has been no evidence that such was the case. 



Xntiotial. Jova. .Vlthea R. Sherman. 



ROBIN ( Pla)irf:tic"s; mif/ratoriii.'! viU/rnforiufi) . 



Among the anomalies in bird history during the past winter lias 

 been the large number of Robins that have tarried in the Fpper 

 Mississippi Valley in spite of the unprecedented length and sever- 

 itv of the cold season. In northern Iowa the first six weeks of 

 1012 gave u« twenty-six mornings of zero weather, or far below 

 the zero mark. The mercury on two mornings fell to oO and "0 

 degrees below zero, and on two others to 24 and 25 below, the 

 averaee for the twenty-six morninL's lieing ^P> below. In the first 

 sixteen days of .January only once did the temperature rise above 

 7.ero. This rigor of climate would seem sufficient to drive the 

 Robins southward, but such was not the case. On Decemlipr 2S. 

 with the mercury at 10 degrees below zero, a flock of two dozen 

 or more were seen by the mail-carrier on Route No. 2 out of Mc- 

 Gresor. Iowa, and on numernu« days since then one or two of the 

 species have been reportd from different placs in northern Iowa 

 and south-western Wisconsin ; while from a point but forty miles 

 south of St. Paul in Northfleld, Minnesota, a friend says slie has 

 had a Robin boarder all winter. 



Somewhat similar has been the case of the Goldfinch, a species 

 that very rarely is seen here in the winter. Tree Sparrows and 

 .Tuncos have remained in some numbers with us, whereas they 

 usually move farther south during the coldest months of winter. 

 The unparalleled abundance, of the ragweed crop last smnmer pro- 

 vided food everywhere for these seed-eaters. On the other hand 



