46 The Wilson Uui.i.ktin— No. C)G, 



The exceedingly dry autumn resulted in forest fires that 

 raged through the wooded districts of Michigan, causing seri- 

 ous loss in property and many human lives. The dense volume 

 of smoke impaired navigation on the Great Lakes for a time 

 and reached this city, Detroit, on the evening of September 11. 

 The next morning this section was enveloped as in a dense fog 

 and the sun shone as through smoked glass, and thus began a 

 spell of alternate smoke and sunshine, according to the condi- 

 tion of the air and direction of the wind. September 21 the 

 smoke was so dense that I could not run lines with the survey- 

 or's transit. 



Nine o'clock in the morning I counted thirty Blackburnian 

 and four Black-poll Warblers in several maple trees near the 

 lower end of River Rouge Village. They were still there at 

 four o'clock in the afternoon. September 22, small flocks of 

 Black-poll and Tennessee Warblers were stalled in the shade 

 trees all through the village, but were gone on the 23d. It was 

 only on days like the above that the warblers seemed in any 

 way affected, and the waders not at all. 



Mr. Taverner gives September 13 as his earliest fall date for 

 the Lincoln Sparrow. I took a male September 7, 1906, which 

 is in my collection. This bird was in company with two oth- 

 ers, and later in the day, two single birds were noted about a 

 mile distant, which looks as if careful investigation would fix 

 the date of first arrivals in the first week of September. 



The Philadelphia ^''ireo is certainly not common here, but I 

 believe a few pass through every year. I have not yet system- 

 atically investigated the local vireos, but during the warbler in- 

 vestigation (1903-7) eight vireos of this species were mistaken 

 for warblers and taken on the following dates : May 17 and 

 20, June 2, and September 3, 10 and 24. Twelve more were 

 identified in time to save their lives. Except a flock of three 

 in the autumn and one pair on June 2, all were single birds. 

 This vireo possesses more warbler characteristics than any 

 other species I have met with, and can not be separated with 

 certainty when in the tops of tall trees. 



