WINTER AVIFUNA OF AIKEN, 

 SOUTH CAROLINA 



By John Dry den Kuser 



I have visited Aiken, South Carolina for five win- 

 ters and I am going to attempt to give a review of my 

 observations on its bird life. The time that I was 

 there each year is as follows: 1910, Feb. 19 to March 

 18; 1912, Feb. 8 to April 11; 1913, January 22 to 

 March 31st; 1914, January 14 to April 10th and from 

 December 29th, 1914 to April 15, 1915. 



Aiken is situated in the pine-barrens of southwest- 

 ern South Carolina. Its altitude is six hundred feet, 

 its latitude 33-5' and its longitude 81-7'. The soil is 

 composed of clay and sand which vary greatly both in 

 color and in composition. The flora consists to a large 

 extent of various species of Pine; principally the 

 Long needled Pine (Pinus Palustris). Jessamine, 

 Violets, Redbud, Dogwood and Shad-bush are among 

 the common flowers and shrubs which are in bloom 

 by the first of April and Arbutus can be found bloom- 

 ing in late February. However the bloom of all of 

 these varies greatly each year, according to the ad- 

 vance of spring. For instance in the mild winter and 

 early spring of 1913 all of these species were to be ob- 

 served in full bloom exceedingly early — the Arbutus 

 in January — and even in 1912 the Jessamine was in 

 flower on the twenty-second of March. But on the 

 other hand March of 1915 saw little indeed of the 

 spring advance of these species. Other species of 

 flora which were observed frequently were: Ameri- 

 can Crab (Malus angustifolia) , Carolina Vetch ( Vicia 



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