NOTES ON BIRDS OF THE VICINITY OF WASHINGTON, PA. 37 
black and white, the Nashville, the northern water-thrush, 
the caerulean, the hooded, the chestnut-sided, the Kentucky 
the bay-breasted, the parula, the black-throated green, the 
black-throated blue, the mourning, the prairie, the Tennessee, 
the magnolia, the Cape May, the golden-winged, the Black- 
burnian, Wilson’s, the black poll and the Canadian. At all 
events this is the showing of our observations. 
Of transient sparrows we have noted the fox, the, white- 
crowned and the white-throated; the fox sparrow appears 
early in April; the other two in May. 
Both the night hawk and the whippoorwill we have seen 
and heard, but we have no record of their coming or going. 
Vesper and grasshopper sparrows, so far as our testimony 
eoes, are summer residents arriving in April. 
A few birds are seen by us not every year but at long 
intervals, the parula and the golden-winged warblers for ex- 
ample. The purple finch is reported as a winter visitor but 
we have seen it only now and then and always in the early 
spring. Once or twice only, bobolinks have delighted us by 
a visit of a few days in May to a nearby grassy hillside. A 
flock of crossbills have given us a single visit. Once a pleas- 
ant surprise came in the rare advent of six or eight evening 
erossbeaks, wanderers from the far Northwest. A single 
visit from a little green heron proved less exciting. Just 
once in many years have we heard the honking of wild geese 
flying north, or in any direction. 
But these recalled the behavior of a representative of their 
family. When cannon were being fired one Fourth of July 
many years ago, our special observation was that at the sound 
of each explosion a swan would start like a frightened horse, 
whereas a Canada goose near it in the same pond showed no 
sign of disturbance. Once each a straggling mockingbird and 
a bewildered grebe have come our’ way. 
Migratory birds are often said to return with great regu- 
larity. In confirmation of this we have noted the return of 
Baltimore orioles April 28th for three successive seasons. An 
orchard oriole put in a first spring appearance, alighting on 
a low bush near our breakfast room window at 7:30 one May 
day morning. The next year it was observed to return to the 
same bush on the same day and at the same hour precisely. 
