76 
Murdoch on Migration of Birds. 
early part of September, when the Warblers and other gay summer 
visitors begin to leave us, the fall is a season of successive depart- 
ures, until, when the ground is fairly covered with snow, nothing 
remains but those birds, like the Chickadee, who pass the whole year 
with us, and our regular winter-guests from more northern districts, 
who find our winters, severe as they are, more genial than the rigors 
of Canada and Labrador. 
This winter, however, matters have been somewhat different. The 
delightful autumn weather persistently continued, until one began 
to doubt whether we were to have any winter at all. Up to the 
30th of December there had not fallen an inch of snow, and the 
ponds and streams were hardly frozen, while in many places the 
grass was still green. 
Naturally, some of our migratory birds took advantage of the 
* 
clemency of the season to avoid starting on their long and tiresome 
journey, before they were actually forced to. 
On December 29, while walking at a short distance from my 
house, in Roxbury, Mass., I was somewhat surprised to see a pair of 
Bluebirds ( Sialia stalls) fly up from a fence, near at hand, and alight 
upon a tree not far off. There was, of course, no doubt as to their 
identity, as a Bluebird is not easily mistaken. This bird usually 
leaves us by the early part of November. On the same day, in 
Sharon, Mass., a friend of Mr. Ruthven Deane actually shot a Blue- 
bird out of a small flock. 
The Catbird ( Mimics carolinensis) generally departs by the mid- 
dle of October, but Mr. C. W. Townsend, a member of this Club, 
informs me that one of these birds was taken by J. F. Carleton, in 
a field at Woods Hole, Mass., on the 28th of last December. 
Mr. Townsend also saw as late as the first of January small 
flocks of the Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Dendroeca coronata), in the 
woods, near the shore, at Magnolia, Mass. This bird has been 
known to linger as late as the early part of December on Cape 
Cod, but never so far north of the Cape. 
These instances all point to the probability that many of our 
autumn visitors took advantage of the season to prolong their stay 
beyond their usual custom. 
