262 List of Birds found in Cumberland County, Penn. 



of particular sections. They too were almost constantly travel- 

 ling, and of course could not ascertain as much respecting the 

 periods of migration at particular places as can be done by more 

 humble ornithologists who are obliged to glean in the field of 

 knowledge where their predecessors have reaped so rich a har- 

 vest. These writers have given us the outlines (if we may so 

 speak) of the ornithology of that part of America north of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, but many blanks remain to be filled up; much 

 still depends upon local observation, and many facts must be 

 gathered by observers of small districts — men who have the ob- 

 jects of their attention and inquiry constantly before their eyes, 

 before this branch of science can be as perfectly understood as it 

 is in Great Britain. On the importance of this mode of obser- 

 vation, Swainson and Richardson, in their admirable work on 

 the zoology of British America, remark : 



" The discovery of the laws which regulate the distribution of 

 species on the face of the globe being one of the most important 

 ends of the publication of local faunae, the scanty contributions 

 of facts that we have been enabled to make are thrown for the 

 greater facility of reference into a tabular form. The new world 

 is peculiarly adapted for researches of this kind ; its two extremi- 

 ties, and almost every intermediate zone are accessible, and it is 

 to be hoped will hereafter be minutely investigated for the pur- 

 pose of natural science. When accurate lists of the resident 

 birds in each region, and of the summer and winter visitors are 

 obtained, many highly interesting and unexpected deductions 

 will doubtless be made, and much theoretical reasoning exploded. 

 The Prince of Musignano has performed a great service to science 

 by furnishing such a list for the neighborhood of Philadelphia." — 

 Fauna Boreali Americana, Introduction, p. 17. 



Much too may be done in the way of correcting mistakes into 

 which our ornithologists have fallen for reasons above stated. 

 Many birds spoken of by Audubon, our latest writer, as " ex- 

 tremely rare" in the United States, have been found to be very 

 common with us, and others supposed not to visit Pennsylvania, 

 are frequently met with. We might cite instances, but the list 

 will show facts of this nature. Nor need any young observer 

 despair of finding what is even new, as the writers of this paper 

 have procured two species within the narrow limits of their field 

 which were previously unknown to science, and descriptions of 



