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THE OOLOGIST 



carefully prepared articles already 

 prepared which will occupy consider- 

 able space and are accompanied by 

 some splendid illustrations; one of 

 which is a resume of a two months' 

 trip into the Everglades. And in the 

 near future we expect to get out an- 

 other Isle of Pines number which will 

 be very valuable, as practically all of 

 the information relating to that far 

 away Isle that has been printed, has 

 been published in The Oologist. 



Scarcity of Bluebirds in the Delaware 

 Valley. 



I read Mr. William M. Palmer's note 

 in the August Oologist, on the scarcity 

 of the Bluebird in the Delaware Valley, 

 with much interest, as I have noticed 

 the same thing this year in Southeast- 

 ern Pennsylvania. 



In Northeastern Philadelphia very 

 few Bluebirds were to be found this 

 summer, and for the first time since 

 1897, when I first began keeping notes, 

 I failed to find a nest of this harbing- 

 er of spring. 



The Bluebird arrived on February 

 20th in this locality, when a pair were 

 seen at Harrowgate by my cousin, R. 

 M. Kerrigan, but it was not until 

 March 19th that I observed it, when I 

 saw a lone male at Chamounix in 

 Fairmont Park. 



Subsequently, till July, I have very 

 few records of the occurrence of the 

 Bluebird in the vicinity of Philadel- 

 phia, probably of not more than ten 

 birds, and the highest number observ- 

 ed in one day is five, on April 1st, in 

 the Pennypack and Huntingdon Val- 

 leys, Montgomery County, Pa., which 

 were probably migrants, as only a fe- 

 male was seen on May 15th at the 

 same localities. On April 4th, three 

 Bluebirds were observed at Fox Chase, 

 where at least a pair nested as I after- 

 ward saw one or two birds here. My 



other few records are of single birds 

 seen. 



On April 28th, at Delair, Camden 

 County, New Jersey, I saw two Blue- 

 birds, and in South Jersey, on May 

 25th, one or two were observed at 

 Cape May Court House, a region not 

 in the Delaware Valley. 



Where are the Bluebirds? I confess 

 I do not know. But that they will 

 return again I have no doubt, for they 

 practically disappeared in the East- 

 ern United States in 1895 and have 

 since, till this year, returned. 



Dr. C. C. Abbott had an article on 

 the "Passing of the Bluebird" in the 

 "Public Ledger" of June 9, 1896, a 

 newspaper of this city, and reprinted 

 in the Report of the Pennsylvania De- 

 partment of Agriculture for 1896, a 

 beautifully written essay on the dis- 

 appearance of the beloved Bluebird,, 

 and thought they had gone for good. 

 But in a few years they were as plen- 

 tiful as ever in their old haunts. At 

 that time it was thought that the ex- 

 cessive cold weather decimated the 

 birds and probably the same thing oc- 

 curred again this winter, which was of 

 unusual severity throughout the states, 

 and abnormally cold. 



I heartily concur with Mr. Palmer 

 that Dame Nature will, in her good 

 time, as she formerly did, restore 

 these little denizens of our fields and 

 gardens. What would the fields and 

 farms, orchards and groves be with- 

 out the Bluebirds? 



I also noticed a big decrease in 

 Robins this spring in the Delaware 

 Valley. With millions of Robins an- 

 nually slaughtered in the South in the 

 winter months it is a wonder there are 

 so many found here as there are. If 

 the murder doesn't cease the Robin, 

 will eventually become a rare bird, I 

 fear. Richard F. Miller. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



