44 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



A DEFENCE OF HIS CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF NEW 

 ENGLAND. 



BY T. M. BREWER. 



Messrs. Editors : — There were two objects set prominently in view 

 in my list, and distinctly stated. One was to furnish a list that shall 

 be reliable so /ar as ii f/oes. The otter was to present a separate list of 

 those birds attributed to New England, but in regard to which, up to May, 

 1875, I could* "find no evidence that would Avarrant me in retaining 

 them." These statements seem sufficiently intelligible. The one sug- 

 gests the incompleteness of the list and my expectation of additional facts. 

 The other explains the challenged list as one given, after many years of 

 careful investigations, as my own conclusions, for which. I alone am 

 responsible. It is my indisputable right, having made my own investiga- 

 tions, to form and to express my own conclusions. 



In confining myself to what is reliable I necessarily had to omit all 

 generalizations where the data were ojien to conflicting constructions. 

 Thus in referring to seven species I confined m^^self to the single promi- 

 nent feature in their New England life, their residence here in summer. 

 The record shows (North American Birds, passim) that I was also well 

 aware of their more or less limited presence in winter. To my mind their 

 occasional presence does not necessarily prove them to be, properly speak- 

 ing, resident, a term only applicable to cases where the same individuals 

 are both generally and constantly present. It should not be applied, ex- 

 cept with careful qualifications, to species where this presence is limited 

 to a small proportion, or where it may be altogether doubtful. 



* My friend Mr. Deane, in recording the capture of Sto-na fuliginosa near 

 Lawrence, Mass., speaks of my having for some unknown reason withdrawn 

 this species from the New England list and of its being now replaced. I object 

 to this phraseology as calculated to give an erroneous impression. If the bird 

 liad been rightfully in the list, it was not in my power to withdraw it. If there 

 is no evidence in favor of this right, it cannot be replaced. It was first men- 

 tioned by Mr. Samuels as breeding in Muskegat. Every one familiar with that 

 island knows that there is not even a probability that it has ever done so. The 

 whole statement was obviously incorrect. So well satisfied was Mr. Samuels 

 himself of the incorrectness of his information that in his "Ornithology of New 

 England " he omits this species. This Tern is now generally regarded as a cos- 

 mopolitan, intertropical species, rarely occurring north or south of the two 

 tropical lines, and is not known to have occurred on Long Island, the coast of 

 New Jersey, or anywhere noith of the Chesapeake prior to the present record. 



