ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 91 



leave before the approach of winter. Those who visit us in the 

 winter are of a very different race, come from far beyond our limits, 

 and do not remain with lis after the approach of spring. More than 

 this, these winter visits are not confined to Southern New England. 

 In some seasons, and under certain conditions, Robins are more 

 numerous in some portions of Northern New England, in mid- 

 winter, where food is abundant, than I have ever found them in the 

 southern portions. So far as my note on the Robin went, it was at 

 least accurate, but the supplement of " H. A. P." is both inexact 

 and calculated to mislead. 



" H. A. P." asks if certain species, five in number, and named by 

 him, are not shown by the records as birds to be retained. Having 

 answered these questions to the best of my ability, in advance, 

 and in the negative, I can only repeat that all the records we have 

 in reference to them are unreliable, and that, in my judgment, these 

 names should remain on the list of those requiring more evidence. 

 One of them, Nettion crecca, will probably prove to be of occasional 

 occurrence, but this I do not deem at all probable of the other four. 

 If " H. A. P." can answer his own question, he should do so ; if not, 

 it is irrelevant. 



" H. A. P." wanders from the path cf legitimate criticism to accuse 

 me of having withheld credit due to certain other and recent 

 authorities, and in so doing ceases to be critical and becomes per- 

 sonal. I will only here remark, that his insinuations are both 

 gratuitous and unjust. No one, other than myself, can know the 

 extent or the limits of my knowledge, and no one has any right to 

 assume how much of it is solely due to information derived from 

 others. The limit to which I was restricted prevented my giving 

 any extent of data, and where I depended upon authorities already 

 made public, I was not at liberty so unnecessarily to swell my arti- 

 cle as to repeat them. In every instance where there was any real 

 occasion to do so, I have given due credit, so far as my limits per- 

 mitted. And what makes this censure seem the more inconsistent 

 and uncalled for is that, in his own paper, in which we find such an 

 amount of sweeping generalizations, no credit whatever is given to 

 any one else as having aided him in forming his conclusions. He 

 has been either inconceivably fortunate in acquiring knowledge 

 under difficulties, or he, too, has withheld the credit due to others 

 for the data upon which he bases the positive dogmas he gives out 

 in a manner quite ex cathedrd. 



