° g ' J Loomis on Birds of Chester County, South Carolina. qq 



winter species from the outset almost entirely supersede the 

 transients as first arrivals. Usually a few transients still occur 

 numerously at the middle of the month. Quite a number linger 

 through the third week, some of them being fairly plentiful. 

 The closing week stragglers only are to be found. With perhaps 

 a few exceptions, the ordinary winter species are represented 

 during the closing fortnight — some in abundance. During the 

 first half of November most winter species reach their maximum 

 abundance, which is followed by the decline to winter numbers. 

 This diminution begins in a few even before October is gone. 

 Stragglers linger into November, mainly birds that winter in the 

 country below. A mild season tends to prolong their stay, and 

 to induce certain other species to remain further north than is 

 their wont. 



So far as I have learned from the literature, migration in 

 August, September, October, and November in the more north- 

 ern Atlantic States does not differ in general character from 

 migration in Chester County. There is difference in times of 

 occurrence and in species. The Canadian element appears to 

 be more prominent at the outset (Brewster, 'Bird Migration,' 

 p. 16), and the later movements bring boreal birds that rarely 

 if ever penetrate to the Carolinas. 



At Point Barrow (Murdoch, 1. c.) the height of the southward 

 migration appeared to be through August and early in September. 

 Until late in October, when the sea began to close, there was 

 still some movement. Several swimming species remained in 

 considerable numbers as long as there was any open water, as 

 late as December. 



In Chester County, December and January are months when 

 the southward and northward movements contend for the mas- 

 tery, there really being no cessation of migration, the migratory 

 waves in some species, particularly those wintering mainly 

 further north, setting alternately southward and northward as 

 the weather is severe or mild. Snow has great influence on the 

 ground-feeding birds in this locality as well as above it, cover- 

 ing up the food-supply and forcing them southward. Protracted 

 warmth in these two months causes some winter species to grow 

 scarce, while others that ordinarily winter more abundantly in 

 the region immediately below are greatly reenforced, the north- 



