76 Murdoch on Migration of Birds. 



early part of September, when the Warblers and other gay summer 

 visitors begin to leave us, the fall is a season of successive depart- 

 ures, until, when the ground is fairly covered with snow, nothing 

 remains but those birds, like the Chickadee, who pass the whole year 

 with VIS, and our regular winter-guests from more northern districts, 

 who find oxxr winters, severe as they are, more genial than the rigors 

 of Canada and Labrador. 



This winter, however, matters have been somewhat different. The 

 delightful autumn weather persistently continued, until one began 

 to doubt whether we were to have any winter at all. Up to the 

 30th of December there had not fallen an inch of snow, and the 

 ponds and streams were hardly frozen, while in many places the 

 grass was still green. 



Naturally, some of our migratory birds took advantage of the 

 clemency of the season to avoid starting on their long and tiresome 

 journey, before they were actually forced to. 



On December 29, while walking at a short distance fi'om my 

 house, in Roxbury, Mass., I was somewhat surprised to see a pair of 

 Bluebirds (Sialia sicdis) fly up from a fence, near at hand, and alight 

 upon a tree not far off. There was, of course, no doubt as to their 

 identity, as a Bluebii-d is not easily mistaken. This bird usually 

 leaves us by the early part of November. On the same day, in 

 Sharon, Mass., a friend of Mr. Ruthven Deane actually shot a Blue- 

 bird out of a small flock. 



The Catbird [Mimus carolinensis) generally departs by the mid- 

 dle of October, but Mr. C. W. Townsend, a member of this Club, 

 informs me that one of these birds was taken by J. F. Carleton, in 

 a field at Woods Hole, Mass., on the 28th of last December. 



Mr. Townsend also saw as late as the first of January small 

 flocks of the Yellow-rumped Warbler {Dendroeca coronata), in the 

 woods, near the shore, at Magnolia, Mass. This bird has been 

 known to linger as late as the early part of December on Cape 

 Cod, but never so far north of the Cape. 



These instances all point to the probability that many of our 

 autumn visitors took advantage of the season to prolong their stay 

 beyond their usual custom. 



