General Notes. 
1 86 
an accumulation has seldom if ever been seen before. The streets and 
parks were full of the birds, and the dailj papers all had their say upon the 
unwonted apparition. In the Smithsonian Grounds, for example, I saw 
one day a flock of a hundred or more Orchard Orioles, mixed with Bal' 
timores. There were flocks of Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 
etc., and any quantity of Thrushes, Vireos, Flycatchers and Warblers 
— among the latter the rare beauty Dendrceca tigrina. Of the latter Dr. 
Prentiss took several — the only ones we have known to be captured here 
for many years. The cause of this gathering of the clans was doubtless 
the cold wave Mr. King speaks of in the preceding paragraph. — Elliott 
CoueSj Washington , D. C. 
More Definite Statistics needed in regard to the Abundance 
of Birds. — It is deeply to be regretted, it seems to me, that we have so 
little specific information in regard to the abundance of birds in the 
various portions of the United States from which lists of species have 
been published. 
Such terms as “common, “not common,” “abundant,” “rare,” “rather 
rare,” etc., may have such different values in the minds of different observ- 
ers, as to render them of but little value for any but the most general 
considerations. They are absolutely valueless in the discussion of such 
economic questions as, Can birds ever become abundant in thickly settled 
districts? and, What birds, if left to themselves, are likely to become most 
abundant in thickly settled sections? 
The table given below indicates the character and kind of information 
which is much needed in the discussion of many important ornithological 
questions. 
The first four columns are compiled from notes made in Jefferson 
County, Wisconsin, between July 31 and. August 7, 1877; those in'* the 
last four columns are from notes taken in the vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y., in 
1878. • 
In each column, opposite the name of the species, is given the number 
of individuals which were observed in travelling the distance indicated 
near the foot of each column. The item, “birds seen or heard but not 
named,” includes those individuals which were known to exist in the 
territory passed over, but which for various reasons could not be identified 
with certainty. 
The salient features of the two localities, briefly stated, are these : — 
In the vicinity of Ithaca, there is a long, deep, and narrow valley, having- 
somewhat rolling, glen-cut sides ; in it lies Cayuga Lake, deep and weed- 
less, stretching, like a broad river, to the northward. Its east and west 
banks are abrupt and rocky and cut, at intervals, by deep wooded glens. 
A small grass swamp, bearing a few trees, at the south end of the lake 
and running up into the city, is about the only low land in the vicinity. 
Formerly a mixed deciduous and evergreen forest covered the hills. Now, 
mere remnants stand near together upon small closely packed farms on 
both sides of the valley. The houses are numerous, the orchards large, 
and there are few fields not having some trees standing in them. 
