80 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 95 



PLAINFIELD, N. J., MID-MAY BIRD CENSUS, 1916. 



W. DEW. MILLER AND CHARLES H. ROGERS. 



Will the reader please turn to tiis copy of the Wilson Bulletin 

 for September, 1915, and make the following additions to our ar- 

 ticle beginning on page 403: Insert "May 17, 1914; May 16, 1915," 

 between the title and our names; add "Nighthawk, 9" to the 1914 

 column; and prefix "Black-capped" to "Chickadee" toward the end 

 of the list. Plainfield is but a few miles north of the Black-capped- 

 Carolina Chickadee boundary. 



On May 14, 1916, we started at 3:45 a. m. from East 7th Street 

 and followed the same route as in the two previous years (north- 

 ward across the city and deviously through and over the Watch- 

 iing Mountains via Union Village to the Passaic River and up its 

 south bank) to a point about three quarters of a mile below the 

 Dead River; it was then about 7:30 p. m. and rapidly becoming 

 so dark that we took a short cut by road to the road by which we 

 have regularly returned through Mt. Bethel to North Plainfield, 

 which we reached in time for the 9:30 car. The distance cov- 

 ered, not counting the more intricate of our windings, was about 

 eighteen and one half miles, as against about twenty miles in 

 1914. Weather fine the first three and one half hours, cloudy 

 from 7:30 a. m., brief light showers after dark; moderate south- 

 east wind; 47° at start, 53° at return. 



Our list of birds was 99 fully identified species, but if we did 

 not break our record for the total (104 in 1914), we did for 

 Mniotiltidce, as we noted every species found tlie two previous 

 years, and two more. Golden-winged and Prairie, making 26. This 

 was in spite of the fact that only 265 of the 1090 individuals listed 

 were warblers, compared with 334 out of 1112 in 1914. The unus- 

 ual abundance of Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanagers and Northern Water-Thrushes helped 

 swell our total. The most noteworthy species was the Mocking- 

 bird, W. DeW. M's. second record for the region. The number of 

 Tennessee Warblers was greater than the number of those either 

 of us had observed in all our previous springs' bird study. The 

 Woodcock was singing, an unusually late record. Each of us noted 

 every species mentioned; individuals recorded as before. 



While several species are on our list by sheer good luck, poor 

 luck contributed to our not breaking our record, especially in not 

 seeing a Green Heron or a Kingfisher, although we were follow- 

 ing water courses nearly all day. The entire absence each of the 

 three years of the Green Heron and the White-eyed Vireo from the 

 several miles of Passaic Valley covered is remarkable. 



