ORNITHOLOGIST 



AND — 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1S75. 



Single Copy 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. IX. 



PAWTUCKET, R. I., MARCH, it 



No. 3. 



Migration in the Mississippi Valley. 



As already announced in the January 

 number of the 0. and O., the observations 

 on the migration of birds will be contin- 

 ued for the third year, and there is now 

 every prospect that this spring will see the 

 accumulation of notes more extended and 

 important than ever before. In answer to 

 the request for observers in the January 

 O. and 0.. many responses have been re- 

 ceived, some from those who have had 

 many year's experience in the work of ob- 

 serving. Still there is room for more, es- 

 pecially in the states of Mississip23i, Louis- 

 iana and Texas; and I would rejDeat my 

 request that all who are willing to aid in 

 the work should send me their names. 

 Before this number reaches you, spring 

 migration will have, already commenced. 

 Indeed, at this place, the birds have already 

 (Feb. 3,) begun their northward journey. 

 In the next number we shall probably be 

 able to give the names and numbers of the 

 stations and observers, and present a map 

 of the district which is to be studied. If 

 possible to collect the notes in time, we will 

 also give a short account of the first move- 

 ments of the birds from their winter 

 quarters. 



To you in the north, whose winters are 

 long and cold, and bird life there very 

 scarce, it raay be of interest to know what 

 the birds do in this land where December 

 and January are a mixture of late in the 

 fall and early spring. We have had snow 

 only two days, and Feb. 2 showed the first 

 wild flower in bloom — Claytonia virgini- 



ca. Bird life has been abundant and va- 

 ried throughout the winter. Seventy-one 

 species have been identified as actually 

 present during cold weather, while a doz- 

 en or fifteen more undoubtedly occur with- 

 in twenty miles of here. 



Indian Territory as a whole is almost an 

 unknown land to ornithologists, and this 

 southeastern part, so far as I can learn, 

 has never before been studied. It has a 

 queer mixture of several avifaunse. The 

 Harris's Sparrow, (Z. querula), Smith's 

 Longspurs, (C. pictus), McCown's Bunt- 

 ings, (H. maccowni), Oregon Snowbirds, 

 {J. oregonus), and Brewer's Blackbirds, 

 (S. cyanocephalus), the last present in 

 large flocks all winter, remind one of the 

 plains and mountains of the west and 

 north. The Robin and the Eastern Blue- 

 bird are here as representative and famil- 

 iar birds of the east, but they are a small 

 and very insignificant factor of our bird 

 life. While the Southern Chickadee, (P. 

 carolinensis,) the great Ivory-billed Wood- 

 pecker, (C. principalis,) the flocks of Tur 

 key Buzzards and Carrion Crows, ( C. aura 

 and atrata,) sailing all day overhead, and 

 last fall the large parties of the Texas 

 Bird of Paradise or Scissor-tail, {31. forfi- 

 catus,) show that we approach a southern 

 fauna. We also have both kinds- of Mead- 

 ow Lark, (Sturnella,) and all three varieties 

 of the Yellow Hammer, (Colaptes.) Alto- 

 gether it is a very promising field, and it is 

 to be hoped that with the spring tide of 

 migration much valuable material will be 

 collected. — W. W. Cooke, Caddo, Indian 

 Territory. 



Copyright, 18S4, by Prank B. Webster and Eaton Cliff. 



