44 
BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 
A DEFENCE OF HIS CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF NEW 
ENGLAND. 
BY T. M. BREWER. 
Messrs. Editors : — There were two objects set prominently in view 
in my list, and distinctly stated. One was to furnish a list that shall 
be reliable so far as it goes. The other was to present a separate list of 
those birds attributed to New England, but in regard to which, up to May, 
1875, I could* “find no evidence that would warrant me in retaining 
them.” These statements seem sufficiently intelligible. The one sug- 
gests the incompleteness of the list and my expectation of additional facts. 
The other explains the challenged list as one given, after many years of 
careful investigations, as my own conclusions, for which I alone am 
responsible. It is my indisputable right, having made my own investiga- 
tions, to form and to express my own conclusions. 
In confining myself to what is reliable I necessarily had to omit all 
generalizations where the data were open to conflicting constructions. 
Thus in referring to seven species I confined myself to the single promi- 
nent feature in their New England life, their residence here in summer. 
The record shows (North American Birds, passim) that I was also well 
aware of their more or less limited presence in winter. To my mind their 
occasional presence does not necessarily prove them to be, properly speak- 
ing, resident, a term only applicable to cases where the same individuals 
are both generally and constantly present. It should not be applied, ex- 
cept with careful qualifications, to species where this presence is limited 
to a small proportion, or where it may be altogether doubtful. 
* My friend Mr. Deane, in recording the capture of Sterna fuliginosa near 
Lawrence, Mass., speaks of my having for some unknown reason withdrawn 
this species from the New England list and of its being now replaced. I object 
to this phraseology as calculated to give an erroneous impression. If the bird 
had been rightfully in the list, it was not in my power to withdraw it. If there 
is no evidence in favor of this right, it cannot be replaced. It was first men- 
tioned by Mr. Samuels as breeding in Muskegat. Every one familiar with that 
island knows that there is not even a probability that it has ever done so. The 
whole statement was obviously incorrect. So well satisfied was Mr. Samuels 
himself of the incorrectness of his information that in his “ Ornithology of New 
England ” he omits this species. This Tern is now generally regarded as a cos- 
mopolitan, intertropical species, rarely occurring north or south of the two 
tropical lines, and is not known to havje occurred on Long Island, the coast of 
New Jersey, or anywhere north of the Chesapeake prior to the present record. 
