"Birds" 



An Address before the Oneida Historical Society 



on March 13th, 1911, 



by 



Egbert Bagg, of Utica, N. Y. 



Twenty-five years ago this winter I appeared before you 

 in the rooms connected with those of the City Library, and 

 read "An Annotated List of the Birds of Oneida County, 

 N. Y.," which I had prepared from the observations of the 

 late Dr. William L. Ralph and myself. To-night I appear 

 again to bring that list up to date. 



Great has been the advance in ornithological knowledge 

 during the quarter of a century and in Oneida County, as well 

 as elsewhere, we have advanced in knowledge of our birds. 

 The list, as originally presented, contained 224 species. Now 

 I am able to increase it to 257; but more important than the 

 increase in numbers is the additional information as to the 

 habits and distribution of the birds of our county. 



The Oneida Historical Society printed the original list, and 

 so, having become responsible for it, has reason to congratu- 

 late . itself that this list has been the authority for Central 

 New York for a quarter of a century. During that time, while 

 thirty-three new species have been added, it has not been nec- 

 essary to remove one. There are a very few (twelve) which 

 were originally given on the authority of others, which still 

 remain without further record; and two of these have been 

 questioned*, but the evidence is as good as it was twentynfive 

 years ago, I see no reason to doubt their occurrence, and I 

 have therefore allowed all the original names to stand. 



Of first importance in the study of the birds of a certain 

 region is a limit to and a knowledge of the region itself. Birds 

 are not governed by the arbitrary geographical boundary lines 



*Least Tern, Common Cormorant. 



