8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



for the field to which it relates has been exhaustively studied, especially during 

 the past twenty-five years, by many good observers. 



The nearest approach to a list of the birds found about Cambridge is 

 afforded, I believe, by the annotations which I furnished for Mr. Chapman's 

 ' Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America.' ' The region to which these 

 notes relate was not defined by Mr. Chapman, nor can I now remember its pre- 

 cise boundaries ; but it certainly included the seacoast in the neighborhood of 

 Revere Beach and also, I think, localities as far inland as Wellesley and Weston, 

 with Newton and perhaps one or two other towns lying on the south side of 

 Charles River. Hence it covered an area considerably more extensive than that 

 of the Cambridge Region treated in the present paper. I also take this oppor- 

 tunity to say that the migration dates given, on my authority, by Mr. Chapman, 

 were intended to indicate the usual periods of occurrence, all exceptionally early 

 or late dates being excluded. It is to be regretted that this was not explained in 

 the ' Handbook,' for I am told that the significance of the dates in question has 

 been very generally misunderstood by the readers of Mr. Chapman's excellent 

 book. 



Writers on local ornithology usually restrict their chosen fields to districts 

 included within established political boundaries, such as those of towns, counties, 

 or states ; to symmetrical areas enclosed by purely arbitrary lines, as Mr. Chap- 

 man did in his ' Birds found within Fifty Miles of New York City ' ; or to natural 

 geographical areas, as islands, river valleys and the like. In dealing with the 

 Cambridge Region in the present Memoir I have adopted a plan not dissimilar to 

 the first of those just mentioned, although I have not hesitated "to disregard 

 political boundaries wherever natural or arbitrary ones were better suited to 

 my general purpose. This in effect has been to treat of that territory (and no 

 other) over which ornithologists and collectors, living in or very near Cambridge, 

 have been accustomed to roam during excursions not exceeding a day in dura- 

 tion, and made directly from their own homes. It must be confessed that this 

 arrangement was originally dictated quite as much by sentiment as by practical 

 or scientific considerations ; — nevertheless it has proved not unsatisfactory on 

 the whole, despite the fact that it has led to some perplexities, and perhaps 

 inconsistencies also. There has been no question as to the propriety of includ- 

 ing the entire cities or towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Belmont (with its pretty 

 little outlying village of Waverley), Arlington, Lexington, and practically the 

 whole of Waltham. Weston and Lincoln have been excluded, partly because 

 they are comparatively seldom visited by Cambridge ornithologists, and also 

 because they have fauna! afifinities perceptibly, if but slightly, closer with the 



> F. M. Chapman, Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, 1895. 



