48 BIRD-LAND ECHOES. 



The Arctic circle, of which we hear much and 

 know little, occasionally slips out of place and gets 

 a few degrees nearer the equator than is at all neces- 

 sary. This would be intolerable were it not that 

 Arctic birds come down with it, and snow-buntings, 

 a long-spur, cross-bills, and a pine-grosbeak ; yes, 

 and the snowy owl and one other, still rarer, have 

 been seen poking about the woods and over the 

 fields of Southern New Jersey. When this circle- 

 slipping is sudden and makes a great noise, like the 

 blizzard of 1888, the ornithologists turn out in force 

 and we know all the particulars, but there is a gen- 

 eral indifference to little slips, and the "stragglers," 

 as they are contemptuously called by the museum 

 folk, are supposed to be too few to consider ; but a 

 single pine-grosbeak or half a dozen red-polls are 

 really better than a thousand, for it is, or they are, a 

 great deal more easy to observe as respects habits, 

 voice, and other particulars, just as one individual 

 among men may be very entertaining by himself, 

 but lost in a crowd. First let me say that a great 

 many more northern birds come south than the 

 bird-books state ; and, second, several come as far 

 south as New Jersey that are supposed to be con- 

 fined to New England at this time of year. This 

 has been disputed, but simply on the ground of its 

 being at variance with some preconceptions concern- 

 ing migration. It is not worthy of special notice, 

 but this much may be said in passing. Many 

 northern birds come ashore on our New Jersey 

 coast and scatter inland before finally leaving us. 



