-2 8 LoOMis Oil Birds of Chester County, Sout/i Carolina. [Jurmary 



Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-throated 

 Green Warbler. Durhig the last half of the month, all the regu- 

 lar winter sojourners are represented (the Prairie Horned Lark 

 and a few others perhaps excepted) — some by large numbers, as 

 the Song Sparrow and Golden -crowned Kinglet. The Flicker, 

 toward the middle of the month, and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 

 at the close, exemplify the diminution, in its beginning, of 'resi- 

 dent' and winter birds most abundant as migrants. 



The Parula Waibler serves well as a type of the whole south- 

 ward movement. As a breeder it is only tolerably common. In 

 July it begins to grow more numerous. Increasing through 

 Au"-ust, it finally attains its greatest numbers in September and 

 early October. During all these months fluctuations are con- 

 stant, and they may well be supposed to indicate waves of mi- 

 gration ; each rise in the scale of abundance signifying arrival of 

 birds from territory farther and farther north, and each fall, de- 

 parture for the south. Among strictly transient species the mi- 

 gration is epitomized, likewise, in the Blackburnian Warbler, its 

 sojourn having extended from August 8 to October 32. The ap- 

 pearance of the Red-breasted Nuthatch — a summer dweller in 

 the higher mountains of North Carolina — at the end of Septem- 

 ber seems to throw additional light upon the source from which 

 the later and earlier migrants are drawn. The Wood Thrush 

 during the last days of September and first part of October fur- 

 nishes a striking instance of the reappearance of birds after a well- 

 defined period of absence, the intervening gap being accounted 

 for by the passing over of the inhabitants of the nearer localities. 

 The oscillations of the earlier season continue to the close of the 

 migration. 



November. — What February and the first half of March are to 

 the northward movement, November is to the southward. The 

 opening fortnight witnesses the full tide of Blackbirds, the Red- 

 winged returning after a long void but imperfectly broken since 

 the breeding season. The Meadowlark reaches its height and 

 wanes, and most other winter birds come to their complete meas- 

 ure of abundance. About the 15th the topmost wave of this 

 closing migration recedes, and the subsidence to winter numbers 

 takes place, and the refugees from the northern blasts appear, 

 and, at last, the contest of movements begins anew. In Novem- 

 ber, too, occur loiterers, chiefly species wintering not far below, 



