72 Loomis on Birds of Chester County, South Carolina. 



distribution often tend to give the appearance of exceptional 

 abundance, or the opposite, rendering more apparent, or less so, 

 the movements that are taking place without obstructing them. 

 Influences affecting the food-supply are most potential. Wilson's 

 Snipe is particularly abundant here in the northward movement 

 during wet seasons, the rain increasing the limited food area by 

 rendering the high 'black-jack' lands boggy. September 6, iSSS. 

 it rained heavily for seven hours, terminating a drought that had 

 been prevailing and converting the level 'black- jack' fields of 

 recently sown oats into swampy flats. An isolated patch of four 

 or five acres, immediately after the rain, held more Pectoral 

 Sandpipers than it was ever my fortune to see before in this 

 locality at one time. Until the ground was dried this spot was a 

 rendezvous for passing Sandpipers, the species varying from day 

 to day. Such birds are seldom seen here away from mill-ponds, 

 as congenial haunts are wanting, though sometimes observed 

 high overhead in the flush of migration. Nighthawks, Chimney 

 Swifts, and Swallows are most conspicuous during migration in 

 damp weather. Excessive rain causes the American Woodcock 

 to appear more numerous when migrating through its desertion of 

 the low grounds. An especial instance was during the latter 

 half of August, 1SS7, which was a month of continual rains. 

 The fields of heading oats attract passing flocks of Bobolinks 

 in May. In September when the crop is being harrowed in, the 

 Killdeers, in the height of southward migration, occupy the same 

 ground — a plantation devoted to this grain showing an abundance 

 to be observed nowhere else in the neighborhood. A large bed 

 seeded to clover the first of May in a yard in the town of Chester, 

 became the scene of quite a gathering of Indigo Buntings, mostly 

 males, one season. They reached the number of a score and 

 remained until all the seeds were eaten up. Their presence ex- 

 cited some comment, and curious were the explanations advanced 

 to account for it, whence they came being a mystery. 



Variability as occasioned by Topographical Co?iditions. — 

 As is well known, localities on the same parallel, owing to 

 different topographical features, often exhibit diversity in time 

 of occurrence similar to that arising from difference in latitude. 

 The appearance of north-bound migrants along the course of the 

 larger rivers earlier than in the adjacent territory in the Missis- 



