Fall Migration Records 123 



tion that they deserve. Washtenaw County, of which Ann 

 Arbor is the county seat, with its large areas of woodland, 

 marsh, cultivated fields and numerous lakes, is rich in bird- 

 life of varied character. However, the various habitats are 

 so scattered that it is very difficult to cover them all during 

 the limited periods of the migrations. For this reason many 

 of our fall records are very incomplete and misleading as to 

 the comparative abundance of certain species. A large num- 

 ber of the lakes in the county are known to swarm with wild- 

 fowl during the fall migration, but as these lakes are seldom 

 visited by others than hunters and fishermen it has been hard 

 to secure reliable data on the various species frequenting 

 them at that time. 



Some species, the majority of which breed outside of the 

 county, are known to nest here occasionally. Such species 

 have been indicated in the list by an asterisk (*). Records 

 of first arrivals of these irregular breeders are consequently 

 open to error owing to the difficulty of determining which 

 are summer residents and which transients. It will also be 

 noticed that species have been included which in reality are 

 occasional winter visitants and not regular migrants. Of 

 these the Snowy Owl, Saw-whet Owl, Evening Grosbeak, 

 Pine Grosbeaks, Redpoll, Crossbills,, Snowflake and Bohemian 

 Waxwing are the most noteworthy. Gannets, Double-crested 

 Cormorant and Caspian Tern are merely occasional visitants, 

 although it is possible that more extensive field-work would 

 show some of these to be more regular in their occurrence 

 than the records would indicate. 



In the tabulated list the dates given are for first arrivals. 

 Por some species these will be seen to vary considerably for 

 the different years. No doubt more thorough observations 

 would show greater uniformity in the records. The order 

 of the species is that followed in the A. O. U. Check List 

 (1910 Edition). 



