20 Oneida Historical Society. 



Local lists such as this are not mow so valuable as they once 

 were, because the .grouiid has been better covered than it was 

 twenty-five years ago ; and, since they gain most of tiheir valae 

 from their local character, they are more valuabk as they are 

 more local. Hence a statement of the exact locality and time 

 of these observations will a'dd to their value. 



While I have consulted the local lists of those observers 

 whose iields have overlapped ours, including Mr. E. H. Eaton's 

 new book, "The Birds of New York," th« foundation is, of 

 course, the original list of 1886, which contained Dr. Ralph's 

 observations up to that date, mostly in the northern part of 

 the county, but the principal sources of the information con- 

 tained in this list are from my own observations, extending 

 over nearly fifty years I have my ornithological journals from 

 1865 to date, and even the first pages contain some interesting 

 facts. These journals show that I made my first trip into the 

 West Canada Creek Valley in 1865, again in 1866. In 1872 

 I began to go there regularly for the month of June and con- 

 tinued to do so till 1881, when I changed to August, and hardly 

 missed a year till r8g6. In 1884 I took a June trip to the Mon- 

 tezuma marshes on the Seneca River, where I have spent many 

 fall days, both before and since. These marshes are outside 

 of our limits, but directly connected by the valley of the Seneca 

 and the Oneida, and the birds of that region easily pass by this 

 birds' highway to our county. Jtme, i885, I spent at Holland 

 Patent, a most wonderfully interesting locality for a bird 

 student. June, 1887, I spent in tliat fascinating area at the 

 east end of Oneida Lake, and was so pleased with the locality 

 that I have spent a great part of every summer (but two) 

 since at that point. In 1894 I began to go to the West Canada 

 Creek Valley in May and have continued to do so ever since. 



I 



As J have lived all these forty-five years at Utica and have 

 made numerous excursions from here, perhaps the field has 

 been as well covered as could be expected when done by one 

 business man during his vacation hours. 



To group the birds of so small a district as ours, according 

 to their occurrence, is very difficult, but I have attempted to 

 do so, and submit this list of 27 residents ; 1 18 summer resi- 



