Bird Mir/ration in the Mississippi Valley. 15 



many song sparrows, the first fox sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglets, Winter 

 wrens, kingfishers, yellow-bellied woodpeckers, white-bellied swallows, phoe- 

 bes, brown creepers and hermit thrushes, besides swelling the numbers of 

 all kinds that were here. 



April 5. — A twelve hours rain to-day. 



April 6.— This day brings four inches of snow. It seemed strange while 

 walking through it the next day to find two full sets of crows' eggs. 



April 8. — Changeable. 



April 9. — Not Spring but Summer, with the mercury at 7G dgs. in the shade 

 and a strong south wind with not a cloud to be seen. 



April 10. — Another Summer day, with a slight admixture of New England 

 weather, raining in the afternoon with the mercury at CO deg., then the wind 

 slowly changed from south to west, and northwest, and during the night it 

 froze. No wonder the birds seemed discouraged this Spring. 



April 12. — Bright, warm and windy, and in the afternoon cloudy. Mercury 

 at 48 dgs. at 8 a. m. The first day this Spring that the air has been full of 

 song. The great change was produced principally by the bursting forth in 

 full song of the tree sparrows, which have been gradually increasing in mel- 

 ody since March 23. To-day they and the song sparrows were on every bush 

 and tree, each one striving to outdo the others. 



April 13.— Warm, with a strong south wind and bright sky. Night of 

 the 13th was warm and clear. It was our first Summer night. 



April 14. — At 6 a. m. the temperature was 65 dgs., with a strong southwest 

 wind. At 9 a. m. the temperature was 76 dgs. and at noon a hard rain set in, 

 and during the night of the 14th it cleared off cold. 



April 14. — The first thing that struck me on reaching the woods this morn- 

 ing was the stillness; so different from two days before. Not one-tenth of 

 the song sparrows were left and only four tree sparrows were seen, the scat- 

 tered black birds were gone, and even the robins were much less numerous. 

 It seemed as if all migrants, which had halted for a few days, had taken the 

 favorable opportunity of the south wind and left for the north. 



April 15.— Mercury at 42 dgs. Cold and chilly all day, with a strong west 

 wind, bringing all the Tvhite-bellied swallows, which for a week had been 

 circling over the city, into one flock,- which kept all day over one place on the 

 river near the principal bridge, where they were somewhat sheltered from the 

 chill wind by high hills and buildings. April 16-April 24. — The next eight 

 days were a succession of cold chilly nights, twice freezing ; with rather clear, 

 but not warm days. Very little migration took place, and the general char- 

 acter of the birds here was unchanged. Only one new arrival was noted, the 

 chewink, and no departure at all. 



April 24-April 28. — These days were a little better. The nights were still 

 cold — the first two nights freezing — but the days were warmer, and bird life 

 was more abundant and much more active. Almost every day showed new 

 species, though none of the really Summer birds had arrived, and the linger- 

 ing snowbirds, ruby-crowns and purple finches, gave a Winter aspect to 

 our avifauna. The first wildflower — the hepatica— opened ou the twentv- 

 fourth, and the next day the arst leaves of the earliest laurels began to 

 show. 



April 29 — May 3. — The next week was a transition period from Spring to 



