1883.] General Notes. 



127 



health, and at the same time so much enfeebled that it is with difficulty 

 that I can command my pen and mind sufficiently to respond to your 

 communication. 



Please tender my acknowledgements to your Society for the honor they 

 have conferred on me and accept personally my thanks for your kind 

 attentions. Should sufficient betterment ever permit, it will afford me 

 pleasure to hold further correspondence with you. It is possible I might 

 afford you some facts of interest, bearing on the pursuit of your 

 Association. 



Ornithology has engaged my attention through a long life. In the year 

 1810 I taught a district school, in a log-house, in Poland, Trumbull Coun- 

 ty, Ohio, and from that period to the present have carefully watched and 

 studied the habits of her birds. 



Few persons are aware, at this day, of the numerous and extensive chan- 

 ges which have occurred, not only among her birds but in all of the 

 departments of nature, during her transition from a heavy Forest state 

 to a thickly populated territory, changes as prominent as those which 

 mark the boundaries between the Geological periods in pre-historic 

 times. 



Then the Turkey Buzzard, by hundreds, swarmed about the carcasses 

 of all dead animals during summer, and frequently nested in the forests 

 along the Mahoning and Big-Beaver Rivers. It is many years since I 

 have seen a solitary specimen in this section of country. 



Then the Swallow-tailed Hawk, in flocks of a dozen or more, might 

 occasionally be observed, reconnoitering over fields of dead and girdled 

 timber and diving down to capture Garter Snakes, then numerous in all 

 of our partially cleared fields. This beautiful bird is no longer within 

 the boundaries of Ohio. 



Then many species of Ducks and other water birds bred in great num- 

 bers in every part of Northern Ohio, then know^n as Meiv Connecticut or 

 the Connecticut Reserve. During the spring and autumn season, every 

 lake, pond, river and creek were crowded with numerous flocks of mi- 

 grating water birds. Now it is a rare event to meet with even a solitary 

 individual. 



Then the Parroquet was very common in the Miami & Sciota valleys, 

 and occasionally were seen in numerous flocks as far north as the shore of 

 Lake Erie. Not a solitary bird of this species has perhaps been seen 

 within the State during the last thirty years. 



On the other hand many other species, formerly rare or unknown here 

 — especially smaller kinds, are now abundant. 



Within the last week the English Sparrow has for the first time visited 

 my premises, five miles West from Cleveland, in which city it was first 

 introduced five or six years since and has now become there very nu- 

 merous. 



Very respectfully Yours, 



J. P. KIRTLAND. 



