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ANNOTATED LIST OF 



THE BIRDS OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK, 

 AND OF ITS IMMEDIATE VICINITY. 



[Read before the Society April 26, 1886.] 



WITH THE ADDITION OF OBSERVATIONS MADE DURING THE BREEDING SEASON 

 OF 1886. 



BY WILLIAM L. EALPH, M. D., AND 



EGBERT BAGG, 

 Associate Member A. O. U. 



The location of the County of Oneida is of first importance 

 when considering its Bird Fauna. Almost in the centre of the State 

 of New York, of irregular outline, approaching in shape a heart, with 

 one lobe resting on Oneida Lake, the other in the great northern 

 wilderness, and the point far down toward the head-waters of the 

 Susquehanna, it is on the very edge of the great island which ages 

 ago rose above the continental sea in northern New York; and 

 from the Eozoic in the northeast corner, a line drawn in a southerly 

 direction across the County, cuts outcroppings of almost all the 

 rocks, through the Lower Silurian, the Upper Silurian, and as far 

 as the Portage and Chemung Groups in the Devonian. 



It is traversed from east to west by a broad and fertile valley, 

 containing the head-waters of the Mohawk and of Wood Creek, 

 and between them the old " carry " of the early boatmen; the 

 summit between the Hudson and the Great Lakes. From this valley 

 the ground rises into gentle hills in both directions, only to fall 

 away again to the sources of the Black River on the north and 

 of the Chenango and the Unadilla on the south. Thus the County 

 contains the sources of rivers flowing to all four points of the 

 compass. The Black river to the north, the Oneida to the west ; 

 both finding their way through the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. 

 The Mohawk to the east, and the Chenango and Unadilla to the 

 south ; the former through the Hudson, and the latter through the 

 Susquehanna, reaching the same destination. 



The rain fall, though we are unable to give the figures, is large, 

 and the temperature is not only low in average, but is extremely 



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