Editorial. 73 



The editor has enjoyed two very pleasant vacations for the sole 

 purpose of studying the birds. The first one was a day with Mr. 

 Benj. T. Gault, of Glen Ellyn, 111., and Rev. W. L. Dawson, of 

 Columbus, Ohio, on an "All Day With the Birds" in Lorain 

 county, Ohio, being the fourth of its kind for this wonderfully 

 favored region ornithologieally. The second vacation was 

 of more significance, being one of a series of studies planned for 

 the purpose of determining what are the resident birds of some 

 of the more interesting and relatively little known places in 

 Ohio, in preparation of a revised catalogue of Ohio birds which 

 is being prepared under the direction of the Ohio State Academy 

 of Sciences. The work occupied three days at the Licking Res- 

 ervoir, some 30 miles east of Columbup, Ohio. There were in 

 this company Mr. Irving A. Field, a student of Dennisou Uni- 

 versity, Granville; Mr. E. J. Arrick, of McConnellsville ; Rev. 

 W. L. Dawson, of Columbus, and the editor. The region is a rich 

 one, and the work deserves special mention in a later number. 



Returns from the request for notes upon the migrations for 

 March were too meagre to permit of a report. If such a report is 

 to be of any value it must comprise representative localities not 

 farther apart north and south than every degree of latitude, and 

 east and west both in the regular streams of migration and be- 

 tween such places. It is not enough to know the rate at which 

 birds travel along their regular highways. We know that pretty 

 well already in general. If the migrations away from those high- 

 ways are only a spreading from them as a center, or if they are 

 the result of an independent movement, we want to know it. The 

 past spring has been unusually favorable for recording unusual 

 warblers, and for studying the warbler host in general. There 

 can be little doubt that the favorable conditions were caused by 

 the weather rather than by any unusual numbers of the different 

 species. This assumption could be verified or disproved if re- 

 ports from many different places in Ohio and the adjoining states 

 and Ontario were available for comparison. Studies so strictly 

 local are of far less value standing by themselves than if taken 

 with a large number of other local studies for adjoining regions. 

 Can we not combine our efforts to learn more about the migra- 

 tions by sending such records as we have to some one who can 

 study them for a final report? The editor has volunteered his ser- 

 vices, but he would be glad to turn the work over to another if any 

 one will volunteer to do it. Is there such an one? 



