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AN INTERESTING ORNITHOLOGICAL 

 WINTER AROUND NEW YORK CITY. 



By Ludlow Geiscom. 



The winter of 1912-1913 will long be remembered by bird- 

 students of New York City and vicinity. The almost entire 

 absence of frosty weather during the latter part of the fall 

 caused many species to linger in larger numbers than usual, 

 while others, which habitually winter farther to the south, 

 were tempted to remain beyond their usual time of departure, 

 and in some cases spent the whole season with us. If the fall 

 was a mild one, the winter was no less so. Freezing tempera- 

 ture prevailed only some half dozen times, and there was only 

 one "cold spell" that lasted more than a day or two. Snow 

 fell only a few times, never in any great quantity, and dis- 

 appeared almost at once. These remarks, of course, must be 

 qualified as regards the outlying country, where naturally 

 enough the temperature averaged a few degrees lower. To 

 give some idea of the effects of this extraordinary weather, 

 flowers of three or four kinds were found in bloom; insects, 

 especially spiders, flies, and midges, were seen; turtles basked 

 in the warm sunlight; and the writer was astonished to hear 

 tree-toads piping on January 12. On the same date, he found 

 a Garter Snake recently killed, and later in the month saw 

 some small bats flying in New York City. 



It is no wonder then, that the winter was favorable to land 

 birds, or rather those species whose food cannot be obtained 

 readily in a frozen marsh or on ground deeply covered with 

 snow. With such birds as the Grebes, Gulls, and waterfowl 

 the case is very different. The more inclement the weather, 

 the greater the numbers of waterfowl which throng to our 

 beaches, bays, and river. A good illustration is furnished by 

 the contrast of the last two winters at Long Beach, L. I. 

 The winter of 1911-12 was an unusually severe one. Eleven 

 species of waterfowl were noted during the winter, and on 



