SOME TENNESSEE BIBB NOTES. 205 



time, I assumed tliem to be migrants, in spite 

 of the date. One of them was near the 

 hotel, on ground over which I had passed 

 almost daily. Why they should be so be- 

 hindhand was more than I could tell ; but 

 only the day before I had seen a thrush 

 which was either a gray-cheek or an olive- 

 back, and of course a bird of passage. " The 

 flight of warblers did not pass entirely until 

 May 19," says Mr. Jeffries, writing of what 

 he saw in western North Carolina.^ 



The length of time occupied by some 

 species in accomplishing their semi-annual 

 migration is well known to be very consid- 

 erable, and is best observed — in spring, at 

 least — at some southern point. It is admir- 

 ably illustrated in Mr. Chapman's " List of 

 Birds seen at Gainesville, Florida." ^ Tree 

 swallows, he tells us, were abundant up to 

 May 6, a date at which Massachusetts tree 

 swallows have been at home for nearly or 

 quite a month. Song sparrows were noted 

 March 31, two or three weeks after the 

 grand irruption of song sparrows into 

 Massachusetts usually occurs. Bobolinks, 



1 The AuJc, vol. vi. p. 120. 



2 Ibid., vol. V. p. 267. 



