194 Rhoads and Pennock, Birds of Delaware. [.Apr. 



BIRDS OF DELAWARE: A PRELIMINARY LIST. 



by samuel n. rhoads and c. j. pennock. 



Geographical. 



Delaware, next to Rhode Island, is the smallest of the United 

 States and has an area of but 2200 square miles. From Delmar 

 on the Maryland line at the south, to the Pennsylvania State line, 

 it reaches from latitude 38 28' to 39 47' North, — or a distance 

 of about ninety miles. Extending these lines we find the north 

 end of the State to be about ten miles south of the latitude of the 

 city of Philadelphia, Pa., while the extreme southern end is on a 

 line with Port Tobacco and Culpepper in Virginia, and over one 

 third of the State is south of the latitude of Cape May, N. J., and 

 Washington, D. C. 



Physical. 



A glance at the map of Delaware shows an extended shore line 

 and numerous waterways. Over one hundred miles of ocean and 

 river front on the east is pierced between Wilmington and Lewes, 

 a distance of less than seventy-five miles, by no less than fifteen 

 streams of sufficient importance to be named, and eight at least of 

 sufficient size to carry light-draft steamboats, and extending on an 

 average two-thirds of the distance across to the western border of 

 the State. These streams form the upper and lower — north and 

 south — boundaries of the various ' Hundreds,' corresponding to 

 townships or towns in other States, and are bordered generally by 

 marshes, salt or fresh, as the case may be, for a considerable part 

 of their extent. Below Lewes the broad expanses of Rehobeth, 

 Indian River, and Assawaman Bays offer great attractions to the 

 aquatic and littoral migrants and residents. 



The southern half of the State still contains large bodies of 

 timber, reaching their greatest development on the river bottoms 

 of the Choptank and Nanticoke in the southwest, and continuing 

 across the Maryland ' Eastern Shore ' to Chesapeake Bay. 



Across the upper end of the State and included in the semi- 

 circular arc, but embracing less than one-half of that segment, we 



