iQia \iii-., Morning Awakening. 22.) 



MORE NOTES ON THE MORNING AWAKENING. 1 



I:', ! r \ MIS II. A.LLEN. 



Mr. Wright's paper on 'Morning Awakening and Even-Song' 

 ('The~Auk,'July, 1912, XXIX,p.307) ha i interested menotalittle, 

 and the more 10 that for ma I have been making occa tonal 



observation along thai veryline. A!, notes, which began in June, 

 188.3, were made chiefly at differenl places within thirty mil< 

 Bo ton, bul I have also the record of a lingle morning near Mi. 

 Katahdin in Maine. They are more fragmentary than Mr. 

 Wright' because they often include only a few of the very earliest 

 singers. For some birds I have more records than Mr. Wright, 

 while for others I have much fewer and for atill others which occur 

 on his lisl I have none at all. My excuse for presenting a few of 

 my own notes after his very careful and thorough records have been 

 published is that, for one thing, they were made in different locali- 

 se Iron i his and therefore give differenl results in some particular , 

 and for another, my deductions from the evidence areal times some- 

 what ;ii variance with his. 



I musl explain thai my observations were made on various date 

 during thee last thirty years, ranging from May 29th to July 26th, 

 and thai before computing my averages I have in every case re- 

 duced the time to terms of the ummer solstice, subtracting from 

 each record the number of minutes by which the sun rose on that 

 date later than the time of earliest, sunrise. Thus on July 20, 

 1906, al Weston, Ma ., the Robins began singing at 3.36, but the 

 nii on .Inly 26 does not rise till 24 minutes later than al the sol- 

 tice; I therefore deduct, the 24 minutes and set, the Robin's be- 

 ginning ;it :».12. It may also be worth while to say that the time 

 used in this paper, as in Mr. Wright's, IS Standard Time, which at 

 Bo ton is Iti minutes behind the local time. To #ct the actual 

 local time, therefore, for purposes of comparison with other plat 

 16 minute should be added to each of these averages. The local 

 time .-if Jefferson, \. II., is about II minutes ahead of the Standard, 



before ili> Nuttal] Ornithological Club, October 7, L912. 



