3o6 



Bird - Lore 



winter. The species does not ordinarily occur 

 at Garden City, Long Island, which is an 

 isolated stand of shade trees, surrounded by 

 open plains unsuitable for them. Blue Jays 

 do occur, however, in wooded areas some mile 

 or two to the north and to the south. On 

 the morning of October 3, and again on 

 October 8, two or three straggling Blue Jays 

 were seen flying over, headed South, unques- 

 tionably migrating birds. 



A Mockingbird was observed at Garden 

 City on October 9. The peculiar status of 

 this biid on Long Island has been worked out 

 from past records as follows. Casual tran- 

 sient in May (May 10); rare but generally 

 distributed early fall transient, August 10 

 (iQ2o, Napeague Beach, W. T. Helmuth) to 

 September 9 (1917, Mastic, J. T. Nichols); 

 less rare local winter resident October i (1890. 

 Thurston, 'Warbler' for 1913) to March 25 

 (191 7, Garden City, J. T. Nichols).— J. T. 

 Nichols, New York City. 



Philadelphia Region. — The weather for 

 the period under consideration has been any- 

 thing but seasonable, unusually hot days 

 prevailing. The temperature for September 

 averaged warmer than for twenty-one years. 

 October has been quite fall-like to date (Oc- 

 tober 15) and the wooded sections are putting 

 on their autumn dress, though many trees 

 still are green. The first frost occurred 

 October 13. 



About the usual number of Gulls, Terns, 

 and shore-birds were observed at Stone 

 Harbor, N. J., August 14. Among the latter 

 were 2 Piping Plovers, i Knot, and 20 Wil- 

 lets. Two weeks later, at the same point, 

 with Mr. Pumyea, this bunch of Willets had 

 apparently been reduced to one bird, and 

 that one was crippled. The rest of the birds 

 no doubt had 'passed on' via the shotgun 

 route, as the Yellow-leg season opened on the 

 iSth. Two Turnstones were noted on this 

 occasion. Of course, the comparative abun- 

 dance of the shore-birds cannot be judged by 

 two trips, so it may be well to state that 

 Dowitchers, Yellow-legs, Willets, and Cur- 

 lews have been repoited to have been excep- 

 tionally plentiful. 



During September there seemed to be 

 uncommon scarcity of birds, especially War- 



blers and Sparrows. On September 11, at 

 Fish House, N. J., no native Sparrows were 

 seen, but i Red-eyed Vireo, i Black-and- 

 White Warbler, and i Black-throated Green 

 Warbler; at Cape May, N. J., September 18, 

 (an all-day trip), 2 Chipping Sparrows, 

 I Song Sparrow, i Towhee, i Myrtle Warbler, 

 and I Maryland Yellow-Throat; at Cape 

 May, N. J., September 25, 4 Savannah Spar- 

 rows, 2 Song Sparrows, i Towhee, 4 Yellow 

 Palm Warblers, and i Maryland Yellow- 

 throat. Hawks, which are quite certain to 

 be numerous at Cape May by the last week 

 of the month, were also absent. In fact, the 

 only refreshing sight of the day was a flock 

 of perhaps 10,000 Tree Swallows which 

 swarmed along the wires and over the tops of 

 the bayberry bushes. Where were the birds? 

 Had they sought out the more quiet and 

 shady nooks to avoid the excessive heat? It 

 is quite probable, and so, many were over- 

 looked. 



With October came the great rush of later 

 fall birds, some appearing in greater abun- 

 dance than normally. The Ruby- and Golden- 

 Crowned Kinglets, the erratic Red-breasted 

 Nuthatches, and the Brown Creepers were 

 among these. On October 3, a Brown 

 Creeper worked on the trunk of a poplar tree 

 here in the city for a half hour, never going 

 farther up than the lowest branches, then 

 dropping to the foot to repeat the operation. 

 After the Creeper left, investigation proved 

 the bark of the tree to be infested with a dark- 

 colored aphis. Every day since, Brown 

 Creepers have been seen hitching their way 

 up the trunk of this tree. Evidently, the 

 aphis is considered a delicate tidbit. 



A number of birds have been somewhat 

 late passing South: Green Heron, October 1 1 ; 

 Indigo Bunting, October 12; Redstart, Octo- 

 ber 12; Tree Swallows, October 16; Oven- 

 bird, October 16 (all at Camden); Ruby- 

 throated Hummingbird, October 9 (Cape 

 May). 



Raptores were abundant at Cape May 

 October 9; Turkey Vulture, 40; Marsh Hawk, 

 i; Sharp-shinned Hawk, 10; Cooper's Hawk, 

 i; Broad-winged Hawk (?), 25 (too high to 

 positively identify); Sparrow Hawk, 3; Os- 

 prey, 6; Bald Eagle, 2; Duck Hawk, i. Two 

 Pectoral Sandpipers were noted the same day. 



