DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 11 



saw July 4, 1791, is the earliest record for Pennsylvania, though 

 it has since been noted a few times, but his is almost the only 

 record for the state of the Carolina Parakeet, which he reports as 

 occurring occasionally near Carlisle, and also the only record for 

 the state of New York, where he reports that the Dutch settlers 

 near Albany were exceedingly alarmed in 1780 by the arrival 

 in the depth of winter of a very large flight of Parakeets. 



Barton has been led into a queer error with regard to birds 

 dividing their time half and half between the summer and winter 

 homes. He saj'-s that in general those species which arrive late 

 in the spring do not disappear until late in the autumn. The 

 facts are Just the reverse; the latest birds to arrive are most 

 likely to leave first, and instead of spending six months near 

 the nesting site, the extreme is reached in the Orchard Oriole, 

 many individuals of which begin their fall migration within 

 seventy days after they enter the state. 



The last three pages of the " Fragments" are devoted to the 

 usefulness of birds as insect destroyers and to a plea for their 

 protection. Thus Barton was one of the first champions of that 

 bird protection which in these later years is at last coming to 

 fruition. 



