Micological Flora. 345 



REPORT ON ORNITHLOGY FOR 1877. 



In some respects the season has been rather unfavorable 

 to the observation of the birds ; more especially as regards 

 their migrations. The year previous was exceptionably char- 

 acterized by a great tidal wave of bird-life that reached us 

 here in its vernal flow about the 10th to the 15th of May. It 

 was emphatically an etherial wave of song as it was constitu- 

 ted of the typical warblers. Although less so, yet to a con- 

 siderable extent, a similar characteristic was manifest through 

 the entire migration of the other groups, determining the mea- 

 sure of collections only by the possibility of taking adequate 

 care of the material obtained. Widely different from this, 

 the birds of the past year have arrived in such inconsiderable 

 number, at or about any one period, that it has required the 

 utmost vigilance to note their presence, and then only as 

 stragglers, stealing their way to their secluded places for rest- 

 ing and rearing their young. It is presumable that the di- 

 versity between the two seasons has been principally deter- 

 mined by the contrast in their meteorological characteristics, 

 as affecting the conditions of transit, supply of food, &c. It 

 is to be acknowledged that with all that has been learned 

 of the birds, very little is settled as to the causes and modifi- 

 cations of their migrations. More has been written, perhaps, 

 during the year, upon this matter, than upon any previous one 

 in the history of ornithology. 



Of course, the additions to our list of newly recognized 

 species have been very meagre, consisting of Leconti's Spar- 

 row — Coturnicuius lecontei (Bor.), collected by Mr. Williams 

 near the city, I think, and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Tryn- 

 gites rufescens, (Cob.), collected by the Messrs. Roberts at 

 Sand Lake, near the northern limits of the East Division. 



