GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY 



VI. 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



REPORT OF DR. P. L. HATCH. 



Prof. N. H. Winched : 



In accepting the position of Ornithologist on the Geological and 

 Natural History Survey of the state to which I have been appointed 

 by the Board of Regents, I desire to express to you and the Board 

 my appreciation of the honor thus conferred upon me. 



When first proposed to me to undertake this work, its objects 

 were so accordant with my inclinations that I had only to har- 

 monize its requirements with the exacting duties of my profession, 

 to enter enthusiastically upon it. This our mutual arrangements 

 have enabled me to do more satisfactorily than I had hoped. I 

 therefore permit myself to expect to have something to report to 

 you at the end of another year appropriate to an embodiment in 

 the permanent records of your comprehensive work. 



To do this I must be permitted to rely upon the co-operation of 

 not only yourself and the other members of your staff, but of the 

 Board, and all collectors temporarily or permanently associated 

 with the survey. 



I have had sufficient experience in the work before me to realize 

 the necessity of aid from reliable sources, and this department of 

 your survey has been so long delayed that it must be rigorously 

 prosecuted if it shall keep its place alongside of the others in the 

 years to come. I do not commence it, however, entirely de novo, 

 having had some nineteen years observations in which I have 

 accumulated some notes on birds in my vicinity, with occasional 

 explorations into other sections as fully represented by them. The 

 rapid settlement of the state has changed the relative representa- 

 tion of this class of its fauna very materially, and the increasing 

 extent of the cultivation of the soil for varied productions is at 

 present not only changing the aggregate numbers of birds that 

 come here to breed, and those that permanently reside here, but 



