Bluebird Migrations — 1917 13 



work of the bureau. Tlie only articles which have concerned 

 it at all have been those contributed to the daily press of 

 Charles City whenever any unusual report has come in. 

 Of the many phases of interest in connection with this 

 work and of its scientific value one might well write at 

 length, I wish here, however, to mention only one of the 

 many unusual and interesting days in the history of the 

 bureau. 



There has never been published in our part of the state 

 any record of bluebird migration which has been as com- 

 plete and detailed as that record which was taken by the 

 bureau in 1917. We have never had any other year which 

 compared with that in point of numbers or concentration 

 of migrating bluebirds. I do not know whether the mi- 

 grants chose a new route that year and thus struck Charles 

 City for the fi'rst time within our /recorded years, or 

 whether the weather conditions or some manner of dis- 

 turbance in the place from which they came compelled 

 them to amass and make their northward flight in more 

 concentrated fashion than was their custom. I only know 

 that March 14, 1917, shall go down in the history of the 

 Bird Bureau and in all written bird records of our part 

 of the state, as " Bluebird Day." Before coming to the ac- 

 tual reports of that day we must investigate the conditions 

 leading up to the event. 



The first bluebird record for that year was reported on 

 February twenty-fifth by Dr. E. P. Hummel.^ On that 

 date, a single bluebird was seen four miles East of Charles 

 City. The first part of March seems to have been a con- 

 tinuous change of freezing and thawing, with no very cold 

 weather. March sixth is recorded as cloudy, puddles in 

 the street and considerable thawing. On the seventh there 

 was ice everywhere. On the eighth the weather was mild 

 and by the ninth ice was again thawing. My record for 

 the tenth reads as follows : "Snow deep in places. Water 



^Reported in notes of Mrs. Mary A. Button, Bird Bureau Re- 

 corder. 



