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Bird - Lore 



soft, 'lone note of sorrow;' they pause to 

 play about the apple trees in an old 

 orchard; they sometimes sing nearly as 

 freely as in spring. The Robins, after a 

 long absence from our lawns (for they find 

 no worms in the parched ground), return 

 in September for a brief hunting-season in 

 fresh plumage, the breast-feathers hoary 

 with frosty tips. Families of Chipping 

 Sparrows join together till sometimes a 

 flock of fifty birds assembles on the grass 

 where, in spite of the lawn-mower, the 

 plants have seeded. These flocks are to 

 be seen daily until October 25, or there- 

 abouts, when, of a sudden, they are gone. — 

 WiNSOR M. Tyler, M.D., Lexington, Mass. 



New York Region. — The autumn has 

 come on almost imperceptibly. Many trees 

 still stand full-leafed and green in the 

 middle of October. The first few days in 

 September there was an influx of a variety 

 of transient birds, among them the Cape 

 May Warbler (Garden City, September 3). 

 But throughout most of September birds 

 were scarce. There were many beautiful 

 days when summer residents and earlier 

 transients had, apparently, moved on with- 

 out others arriving to take their places. 

 The end of the month things became a little 

 more active. There seems to have been 

 an inconsiderable flight wherein the Parula 

 Warbler was represented, about Septem- 

 ber 28 or 29, and a movement of the 

 Swamp Sparrow the first few days of 

 October. In autumn, on Long Island, 

 migrant Swamp Sparrows (noisy and quite 

 conspicuous) frequently appear in dry 

 upland localities. 



The night of October 5 brought a wave 

 of migration. W. Granger, who chanced 

 to be out at about midnight in the Bronx, 

 heard the calls of many birds flying over. 

 Next morning the country was more 

 lively than it had been for weeks. The 

 White-throated Sparrow and Junco came 

 at this time and other species were repre- 

 sented. Myrtle Warblers and Flickers 

 were in greatest numbers. The majority 

 of them moved on almost immediately, and 

 migration declined again through the next 

 few days. 



On the morning of September 19, a cool 

 clear-off with a strong northerly wind was 

 accompanied by a marked flight of Hawks 

 east to west along the south shore of Long 

 Island. The Marsh Hawk, Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk, Pigeon Hawk, and Sparrow Hawk 

 were represented. The Sparrow Hawks 

 were flying over the dunes; the Sharp- 

 shinned Hawks mostly over the land north 

 of the bays. F. F. Houghton writes that 

 there have been Fish Hawks at Botanic 

 Garden, Bronx Park, feeding on goldfish, 

 a not uncommon habit when they first 

 reach us in the spring, but the first instance 

 that has come to hand of it in autumn. As 

 usual. Fish Hawks were numerous on 

 Long Island shores during the autumn. On 

 October 12, several were noticed at Long 

 Beach flying steadily east to west, fairly 

 high, singly and in twos, an indication 

 that the species was moving farther to the 

 south at this date. Up the Hudson, in 

 Dutchess County, M. S. Crosby reports a 

 flock of about 64 Red-tailed Hawks on 

 September 23. 



At Mastic, Long Island, flights of 

 Wilson's Snipe were noted September 4 

 and on September 19. In the morning of 

 the latter date a flock of about seven birds 

 circling over a point of bay marsh (where 

 they presently alighted on some dead 

 stubble) bunched in a close-ranked flock 

 like Dowitchers or Yellow-legs, unusual for 

 this species. 



Though as a whole the southward move- 

 ment of land birds was rather delayed, we 

 find inconsistencies, as is so often the case. 

 Exceptionally early arrivals, reported by 

 M. S. Crosby of Rhinebeck, are Olive-sided 

 Flycatcher, August 8, (Poughkeepsie); 

 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, September 5 

 (Poughkeepsie); and Rusty Blackbird, 

 September 23. — J. T. Nichols, Neiv York 

 City. 



Philadelphia Region. — Almost daily 

 rains throughout August and a correspond- 

 ing number of fine clear days through the 

 month of September were the pronounced 

 features of the weather conditions in this 

 vicinity. Up to this time (October 11), no 

 killing frosts have occurred although 



