1913 ' J >l "' ■'■• ^'"' / M'!ir"H"H Records of William Barlram. 327 



a1 i be close, but his constant out door life and the favorable situa- 

 tion of the gardens offset any lack of ability due to age and make it 

 probable that he recorded the common species as soon as they 

 came about his house. 



I have recently read the journal through and have copied out 

 every reference to birds. These I have arranged systematically 

 and now through the courtesy of Dr. Edward J. Nolan, librarian of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, I am able to 

 present them to the readers of 'The Auk' with such comments as 

 seem pertinent. 



As these data, separated from the botanical and meteorological 

 information with which they were originally associated, give one 

 no idea of the character of the daily entries, I have reproduced 

 verbatim the greater part of the record for January, 1802, and the 

 more important zoological data for the remainder of that year. 



From these the reader will be brought into sympathy with the 

 writer and will be enabled to picture the gentle old man, looking 

 after his farm and pottering about his beautiful garden on the 

 river shore and each evening by candle light jotting down in his 

 little book the events of the day that stood out most prominently 

 in his simple life. 



Following this will be found the systematic compilation of bird 

 migration data and a comparison of the average dates of arrival 

 for certain species with the average dates of arrival at Philadelphia 

 one hundred years later. 



Calendar for the Year of our Lord 1802. 



Jany. 1. The weather serine and as warm as in the month of 

 May after a white frost in the morning. The fields 

 and gardings green with growing vegetables, several 

 species in flower and abundance of insects darting in the 

 air and birds singing as in the spring of the year, frogs 

 lively in the springs. Wind south east. 

 2. Slight white frost, the day exceedingly warm and 

 pleasant as yesterday, Wind S. W. Spiders darting 

 their webs wasps flying about (Vespa anularis) the 

 blewbird sings (Motacilla Sialis). Evening calm and 

 warm. 



