ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND 



OOLOGIST. 



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FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1S75. 



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VOL. IX. 



PAWTUCKET, R. I., NOVEMBER, i£ 



No. ii. 



Migration in the Mississippi Valley. 



Baird's Bunting, ( Gentronyx bairdi). 

 By what route does Baird's Bunting go 

 south ? That is the question. Dr. Coues 

 writing ten years ago, says that it is ex- 

 tremely abundant in Dakota, almost to the 

 Bed River of the north, and that all left in 

 September. Where did they go? The 

 species is not known to occur in Kansas, 

 and if there is any Nebraska record, I have 

 failed to find it. Nevertheless we are 

 bound to believe that it does occur in both 

 these states. Mr. G. H. Ragsdale shot 

 one at Gainesville, Tex., on the 24th of 

 last April, and if it occurs in central Texas 

 and eastern Dakota, it must perforce occur 

 in the intervening country. At Caddo, 

 Indian Territory, it was not found, though 

 I shot upwards of fifty Savanna Sparrows 

 in the vain hope that some of them would 

 resolve themselves into the wished for 

 Baird's. On March 31st, among a lot of 

 Savannas I heard one singing with the final 

 trill which Dr. Coues says is the note of 

 this species, but I was not able to find the 

 bird. The range of this species is from 

 New Mexico to British America and it 

 breeds abundantly in Dakota. 



Indigo Bunting {Passerina cyanea). 

 The Indigo is found all over the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and, though it usually leaves 

 the United^States in winter, Mr. Bibbins 

 says that he has seen it as an occasional 

 winter visitant at Mermenton, La. By 

 April 29th, it has advanced up the Valley 

 to Pierce City and St. Louis, Mo. The 3d 

 of May it was seen at Carlinville, 111., 39 19 , 



and two days later at Glasgow, Mo., 39 u , 

 while on the same day it was seen at Man- 

 hattan, Kansas, 39 12 . This fixes its' pres- 

 ence very accurately at this date, but for 

 the next two weeks the records are so much 

 at variance that it is probably the merest 

 approximation to say that on May 10th, 

 the normal van was in Northern Illinois 

 and Northern Iowa. On the 15th, it is re- 

 ported from Lake City and Pine Bend, 

 Minn. ; the 23d, from Minneapolis, while 

 from Elk River not until June 2d. Elk 

 River, Minn., is very near the northern 

 limit of the species. In three years' resi- 

 dence at 47° in Minnesota it was not seen. 



It may not be out of place here to give 

 the full record from St. Louis, as showing 

 how many changes there are in the make- 

 up of the individuals present at different 

 times. April 28th, first one, a male in 

 song ; April 29th, an increase, a small flock 

 of males ; April 30th, males in song in a 

 few places ; May 5th, the bulk of males 

 arrive and the first female ; May 6th, 

 males everywhere in noisy-flocks and many 

 transients ; these two days, May 5th and 

 6th, were the height of the season for 

 males ; May 9th, the bulk of young males 

 and the bulk of females arrive ; mating ; 

 May 21st, nest building ; May 31st, they 

 are one of our most industrious songsters. 



Orchard Oriole {Icterus spurins). The 

 Orchard Oriole is one of the birds whose 

 migration is steady and uniform, advancing 

 northward on both sides of the Missis- 

 sippi and even on the plains at the same 

 time. Moreover, it is so conspicuous a 

 bird that it is easily noted. Wintering be- 



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



