NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



43 



BIRDS OF WESTERN NEW YORK. 



ERNEST H. SHORT. 

 Introduction. 



In placing this revised and enlarged list of our birds before the pub- 

 lic I have no excuse to offer except that my object as stated in the in- 

 troduction to my first edition i. e. "to bring the subject before other 

 ornithologists — that we might some day bring it to completion," has 

 been realized to a very satisfactory degree. While this list is still very 

 incomplete, it embraces over twenty species omitted from the first one, 

 I have seen fit to omit A. O. U. No. 4, Columbus nigricollis calif or nicus. 

 as further evidence of its occurrence was not forthcoming and I could 

 not find the skin that I understood had been taken on Lake Ontario in 

 1892. I wish to tender my sincere thanks to Mr. Neil F. Posson of 

 Medina, Orleans Co.; Mr. J. L. Davison, Lockport, Niagara Co.; Mr. 

 Frank H. Lattin, Albion, Orleans Co.; Mr. Leslie V. Case, Naples, 

 Ontario Co. ; and others for notes and other help. 



I am especially indebted to Messrs., Davison and Posson for com- 

 plete lists of the birds of their respective localities. 



Trusting that this may prove only another step toward a complete 

 list, I am respectfully, THE AUTHOR. 



April 1, 1896. 



Order PYGOPODES. Diving Birds. 



Family 0 PODICIPID.<E.— Grebes. 



2. Holbcell's Grebe. Colymtus holbcellii. Rare migrant; one re- 

 ported by J. L. Davison as taken at Wilson, N. Y. , on Lake Ontario, 

 May 4, 1887. 



3. Horned Grebe. Colymbus auritus. Migrant; most common 

 along Lake Ontario in the spring. 



6. Pied-billed Grebe. Podilymbus podiceps. Summer resident. 

 Breeds in suitable localities. 



Family URIN ATORID./E. — Loons. 



7. Loon. Urinator imber. Common migrant, especially on Lake 

 Ontario. 



11. Red-throated Loon. Urinator arcticus. Occasional migrant. 

 One taken at mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, Orleans county, during 

 February, 1893. 



Order LONGIPENNES. Long-winged Swimmers. 



Family LARID^E.— Gulls and Terns. 



piece of wood sto ne or otner inor- 

 ganic material' that is tempting it, 

 as a living creature c °uld. Such 

 material faUs, and r e mams st iU on 

 the leaf. But an ins ect struggles, 

 and by this struggle the P'ant re- 

 ceives intelligence th at it is a liv- 

 ing thing. Here also may be seen 

 the advantage of a brief interlude 

 between the stimuli; a piece of 

 gravel might rebound— might make 

 two stimuli close after one another. 

 An insect would wait a short time 

 to collect its senses, and formulate 

 some plan of escape. It is very 

 clear that this ability to discern 

 between the animate and inani- 

 mate saves the plant from a great 

 amount of useless labor. The dis- 

 covery of Dr. Macfarlane is prob- 

 ably the most wonderful of all won- 

 derful things that have been dis- 

 covered in the behavior of plants. 

 Mr. William Canby had already 

 discovered that if a leaf had been 

 "fooled" into closing over a piece 

 or inorganic matter, it soon open- 

 ed and let it out again. Mr. Mac- 

 farlane finds that when it catches 

 an insect, it remains closed over it 

 for twelve or fifteen hours — long 

 enough to consume it. It takes 

 eight or ten hours after an insect is 

 caught before the acid — which in 

 Drosera Mr. Darwin found analog- 

 ous with pepsin, the leading de- 

 structive element in the gastric 

 juice — flowed evenly over the 

 whole surface of the leaf. The 

 leaf surface is subject to stimuli 

 equally with the hair. — The Inde- 

 pendent. 



The Balitimore Oriole. 



In her Birdcraft Mabel Osgood 

 Wright relates the forgoing interest- 

 ing bit of tradition counected with 

 the naming of this bird: 



"George Calvert, the first Bar- 

 on Baltimore," writes she, "is the 

 subject of a "tradition which still 

 lingers in Maryland, and has suffi- 

 cient facts for a foundation to be 

 credible. The story says that Cal- 

 vert, worn out and discouraged by 

 the various trials and the rigors of 

 temperature in his Newfoundland 

 colony, in 1628 visited the Virginia 

 settlement. He explored the wat- 

 ers of the Chesapeake, with its no- 

 ble tributaries and delicious cli- 

 mate, and found the shores and 

 woods teeming with birds, and 

 among them great flocks of orioles, 

 who so cheered him with their 

 song and color that he took them 

 as good omens and adopted their 

 colors for his own. Be this as it 

 may, it is a likely story; for the or- 

 tole has gone on cheering mankind 

 io this day. " 



47. Great Black-backed Gull. 

 reported by J. L. Davison also by G. 

 Co.. N. Y. 



Larus marinus. Rare migrant, 

 F. Guelf of Brockport, Monroe 



51a. American Herring Gull. Larus argentatus smithsonianus. 

 Occasional straggler during spring migration. 



54. Ring-billed Gull. Larus delawarensis. Occasional migrant. 



60. Bonaparte's Gull. Larus Philadelphia. Rare migrant. One 

 shot near Albion, Orleans Co., in 1892. 



70. Common Tern. Sterna hirundo. Occasional migrant. One 

 shot at Chili, Monroe Co., 14 miles from Lake Ontario. 



72. Roseate Tern. Sterna dougallii. Rare migrant. Reported 

 by Mr. Davison as taken at Youngstown, on the Niagara River, May 



31, 1886. 



77. Black. Tern. Hydrochcelion nigra surinamensis. Rare migrant. 

 Confined to vicinity of Lake Ontario. 



