OUR BIRDS IN GENERAL. 95 



sarily follows that there must result certain peculiarities 

 of habit incident to the locality that are of interest to the 

 philosophical naturalist. 



In a region like Central New Jersey, which seems to 

 be a neutral ground between the ranges of Northern and 

 Southern species, it is scarcely practicable to determine 

 precisely the avi-fauna. Every year adds additional in- 

 stances of the occurrence of some rare straggler ; and, in 

 accordance with the character of the winter especially, is 

 there an abundance or otherwise of certain species that 

 make a brief stay during that season. Again, it is scarcely 

 practicable for an observer, however enthusiastic, to be 

 out-of-doors the entire day, and, I may add, evening; 

 and yet, unless thus constantly on the watch, the coming 

 and going of certain species will escape his notice. A 

 list of birds characteristic of a given locality is of value 

 as a catalogue of a very limited area, and does not hold 

 good over any considerable number of square miles, for 

 the variation in the surface geology or physical geogra- 

 phy of the neighborhood affects in a marked degree the 

 habits of some species, and decides the presence or absence 

 of others during a part or the whole of the year. As an 

 instance, Gentry, in his " Life Histories of Birds," refers 

 to our common meadow-lark as migratory about German- 

 town (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, while in this neighbor- 

 hood it is a winter resident ; and the same might be said 

 of several other species. Yet the field of Mr. Gentry's 

 observations and my own are but thirty miles apart as 

 the crow flies, though geologically they are as different 

 as well can be. 



In conclusion, it may be added that in the uplands 



and meadows, and along the river-banks, I have noted 



one hundred and seventy-two species of birds. Of these, 



many are migratory, while others visit us but rarely. Of 



7 



