AR Ne ? ‘ z Va Pee a ee A Bek Se RO MR LAUR Na ad AGE vn mth bd rf ’ EUSA ye + ) gas at DORR 4 Pa eC) PC He a 4 Ah Kea CORE MNS OC fe VN ata LAURA YAY a) Mi) 4 ' ae A ee Oe ' seis datene Py vy AN} M why ‘a Sony Nh ya ix y As i Bein pyar theges ‘ t a tye POA RAL CYL A) ry aly vs tO: ry yh ? i) wi yay SOIR NK Lereky ’ AA A eS AA "| sie ye aN P RGABUNE) Met DORR SURE DORIS 4 bai syie to NOW wuld ROA: wen LALA Ay yea pyle Nh SORA ia) he ihe ca i neo I S21 IE POC NIE rt GU sta Magli al iy heh ie) » V9) ae) 4 i Ca a io ry," Woke i" ai) WR he Ral Pa Wey Nip ye oon ayrt yay? 7) ; et i ” it y Hee abe a SEP ee HR ' Ae 5) hate raat bie) MAM Chin, NE aes ani f Vay at shea i, x Oke f Wii dae a ed . Mi) ee) f for 1g tei ra vive oe of 4 ed ni) wh ee HeernN sit FC a a F 5 A itihinivd y ‘ ikea Pintle a4 futyh f Ara Mi ni ah ea: 3 ald at 4 W?, Hed Miats? vata ih high 4 SAGs a RAM oe ey he Wy? aA ool ‘ aa * A J My AICO ICH On $ see Le ie Ci PAP P aya Gay pag in sae Po Oe cf Aer ae pe fy PTT a eee ya LAN cu Hh + a y his Feib yt, erin a8 of ea ee Un ACR Lae sy tone be 0 DEAE CH FA ‘STR T EMIT VY bee Aa ii) al f re eee ia ta rh 4 toe nd j ei) on wane sia) vege al ‘ Aa RC ah A Mec vay fj 4 veh vag o NEMO IG 4 wy a wind ste PAS Hii a : Sia OD ‘i fa 7 ‘ “qg " Vow nels. iy eg tb RAR aR CR) a” vie A) ain DOO) pea ; , ety ul .) ¥ 4 RE SHAUN SAH Sah vahae by wes ra ay HA ih vit Wy nate Wn tal os \ Say) CONG iy Tai aah 4 ML ARLAH a a A? f af Wi ¥ i ise it uy ENE aren i eit i itaava i le ¥ Woh ak tit i Wak ar ; Aiba Baie i Layee iw Ree iat iain pone deh ie pi i 2 Hi Aen y »' Lp fi ' ” Dank io wey a0 ida 9 A a) * eer est! Ages ihy ae hte yea uy tie A ACN ha oy) ray a » ove hee on i Abe toh {303 101 i ‘yh mattis vy * Meek scape, ra uy HMA trchaey 1 ON ate $v y, ya ebeee a Nn see L Raa Ni Uy » 1 orate my A i, taht not ¥) fa vy ALLENS 2 Pilea ah Abe D HAs! WG iN nN 4M hoy COAST VEonnahed wens itn a wt ) bs fell mia Dee he) if ib) hie {lo {yey ayhircy ORD, pueda jas Wine : yok a) 19 diy iy 4 ‘ ‘i Rates oe ie {) pi Ha Wired i ny aly ‘ Fe 1b ies vail ie die Rpt ode ee ane : oi Aa oy ints i wilh ibe ie Sadeay Ue ipa WN WH oF Hid bi t ; Dee «! Wie i aie VN ak Hain a FADIA A Cen oo an ey we got oo nib ii SEOs wai Ae Sa fie Ca ig Hana ga eee H ati fetes aise sa oe xf it ny ae i bAGAD LY * + hate LA ‘chy ay Ph wed AEN He Nn ao EY a OE Ae oo A} Sie tur ans! ea tha * hy Baa wy, © 0 Wee * ene a 7 $4: ern C) ee % a ] ey vs sah fs hee NCA qny a a oh “at ee a Ase8 | Sey aps y Veer Fi cs . ag as eRe uhh Ka iD I 2 52. eae 5 GG +.B Peas , sy ofa! ey es y a sone ed it +3] ences Pati tat iy ma ict Ne WY pele Caan Biv BB i see ee hs ne ie we push sate Je ei ae Pa " ra Ki peed ee oy oF, hig Eas Wine oR i ke ees x a ee Dina ean oa: 7 ys oe nak ‘ eae mC fi esate ea ‘ea Ls es sty ta Q 2 er 3 se ie 9 } “NPC duy — WORLD’S CONGRESS ON ORNITHOLOGY n @ lat” Coscos Nav. 22d, 1676. Peace ES PRESENTED TO THE WORLDS CONGRESS ORNITHOLOGY EDITED BY MRS. E. IRENE ROOD CHAIRMAN WOMAN’S COMMITTEE OF THE CONGRESS L UNDER THE DIRECTION OF DR. ELLIOTT COUES President of the Congress, Ex-President of the American Ornithologists’ Union. “Birds must and shall be protected.” CHICAGO CHARLES H. SERGEL COMPANY 1896 Soma nTngee aS 0 SWALE S ee AI mat feat } COLLECTION }} ON Ap ah Rd Vational Museo CONTENTS. PAGE AMNouncementoftherConsressuseiseracrier sieve eiellelsictreietetuereisl sreloisiehe re 7 AGhiseiny Comme cos adsccdhodocopecusosogoucuocouboouadaqoSHnon 10 Pulblishers? Notes S28 bi cia sd lala aye etscarevelnisicve aye iciaie lees arated ao obs ohn eta oree 14 The Presidential Address, by Dr. Elliott Coues.................. 15 he Micration Of Birds by) npaupAllen\ either Ustelaersien saetels 31 Slaughter of the Innocents, by Rev. Leander S. Keyser........... 39 The Range of the Crossbills m the Ohio Valley, with notes on their unusual occurrence in Summer, by A. W. Butler............. 47 Observations on the American Flamingo, by D. P. Ingraham...... 59 Hactsierom ithe Hicld wbygkiwEls, Grane anny rece sii semiarictt cise 70 Amateur Ornithology, by Rev. Geo. B. Pratt......... JeoobbsdG0b0 73 Notes on the Observation of Birds, by Oscar Bird Warren........ 82 Hints at the Kinship and History of Birds, as shown by their Eggs, DyalamesuNewtony Baskett s)slerr traci siecrsise/averei seicietohs everenavsly ey 90 The Red-Shouldered Hawk in Captivity, by H. C. Oberholser,.... 106 On the Change of Habits of some Maine Birds, by Manly Hardy.. 113 Ornithology in our Common Schools, by Abraham H. Bates....... 117 Abstract of Address on the Birds of British Guiana, by J. J. Quelch. 121 Song-Birds of the Pacific Coast, by Lyman Belding.......... ... 130 Notes on the Herons of Central Florida, by T. Gilbert Pearson.... 132 The Summer Home of Dendreeca Ceerulescens, by John S. Cairns. 136 insiiner in Birds: bys) stele bowlest tema. cere aailvot sie oisiee clersistersios 139 On Birds Names; by) Wms. G. Praegers)s -)s/ ssc cscs voscisoesiecins 144 Side Thoughts About Birds, by Frank E.Coombs................ 154 The Homing Faculty in Birds and other Animals, by C. F. Amery. 161 Brorect oun birds, by plenty. Eales}! ycs)s cis eielele icielelsieyaie eileen 168 To the Rescue of Birds, by Hortensia M. Black................-- 171 ihe Cowbird by Alfred Mupesw yin iliecicicin taciateeierscser erie 179 The Ornithology of Columbus’s First Voyage, by Frank M. Chap- VAT ororale el siekel i veyeraistatsidelere ey ey eile cee ene eekieisieiecels 181 Some Recent Economic and Scientific Questions in Ornithology, Dye WeaSinutelaltge gn sey eieysuaa tiie pea renaLiamale) nee Mutya OV area ays 186 The Migration of Hirundo Rustica to South Africa, by D. Emil 1S Wo) ha es cs ae a Aa ER AN A Dt a NLT DLS eM AG ir PURINE He aS ALA SHY IQL WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY OF THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION OF 1893. PRESIDENT, CHARLES C. BONNEY. Vice-PRESIDENT, THOMAS B. BRYAN. TREASURER, LYMAN J. GAGE. SECRETARIES, BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH, CLARENCE E. YOUNG. WOMAN’S BRANCH OF THE AUXILIARY. President, Mrs. PoTTER PALMER. Vice-President, Mrs. CHARLES HENROTIN, DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY. ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF THE CONGRESS ON ORNITHOLOGY. THE undersigned Committee, having been appointed by the proper authorities, announce to all interested persons that a Congress on Birds will be held in Chicago, during the month of October, under the auspices of the World’s Con- gress Auxiliary. It is the design of the Committee to have the Congress treat of birds from the standpoints of the scientist, the econo- mist, and the humanitarian. The field, from the first point of view, belongs to the technical ornithologist ; and it is the wish of the Committee to enlist the co-operation of scientists in the proposed Con- gress, in order that the study of birds may become more general and be appreciated at its true worth by the people. The scientist only can prove the value and interest of ornithology, and upon its proper appreciation does the im- portance of the two other divisions depend. The audiences 8 WORLD'S CONGRESS ON ORNITHOLOGY. of the Congress will doubtless be largely composed of those who, through zesthetic feelings and humane sympathy, rather than intellectual apprehension, have been attracted to the subject, and they will prove a ready means of popularizing the science. Under the head of aviculture, the economist will be given the best results and profitable advice of those who have paid special attention to cultivation of the birds which have proved useful, or otherwise practically interesting to man. ‘The domestication of birds suitable for food, and the taming and training of song birds, are industries of growing value, to which may be added the proper protection of insectivorous birds, humane methods of limiting the increase of birds harmful to man, and legitimate means of securing specimens needed by scientists. Upon the interest awakened by the proper presentation of these divisions of the subject will largely depend the success of the Congress. There is need and possibility of securing legal protection for useful and beautiful birds against indiscriminate slaughter. It has been truly said that if all birds should be destroyed the human race would be unable to withstand the aggressions of injurious insects which would be the inevitable result. The ruthless and brutal slaughter of birds during the past few years is forcing the truth of such conclusions upon us. The connection is not remote between the destruction of birds and the recent alarming increase of insect life that has been so ruinous to fruit and grain. The study of birds opens so wide a field of interest and importance that we feel justified in believing that this Con- gress will appeal successfully to thoughtful and inquiring minds. The date assigned for this Congress is the during week beginning October 16th. Several sessions will be held, in Hall No. 23 of the Memorial Art Palace, at 2 P. M., on successive days to be determined hereafter. The interven- DSi ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE. 9 ing time is so short that we hope all who are interested in the subject will attend without further notification, and will help us, by criticism, suggestion, or advice, to attain our object. The Advisory Council of this Congress will be announced hereafter. Dr. Extiotr Cours, President American Ornithologists’ Union, Chairman, Pror. S. A. Forspes, Vice-Chairman, REv. JENKIN LLOYD JONES, Pror. W. R. MITCHELL, Rev. GrEorGE B. PRaTT, Rev. R. F. JOHONNOT, General Committee of the World’s Congress Auxiliary on an Ornithological Congress. Mrs. E. IRENE Roop, Chairman, Mrs, HELEN Swart, Mrs. Exiza A. GILL, Mrs. CoRINNE Brown, Mrs. ELLIOTT COUES, Woman's Committee of the World’s Congress Auxiliary on an Ornithological Congress. MEMORIAL ART PALACE, Cuicaco, ILx., Sept. 15¢, 1893. Io WORLD'S CONGRESS ON ORNITHOLOGY. Partial List of the Advisory Council of the World’s Con- gress Auxiliary for the Congress on Ornithology. ADVISORY COUNCIL. Abbott, Dr. Charles C., Curator Mus. Univ. Pa., Philadelphia, Pa. Adams, Stephen J., Cornish, Maine. Aldrich, Hon. Charles, Curator State His- torical Department, Des Moines, Iowa. Alfara, Anastasio, Director Nat. Mus., San José, Costa Rica. Allen, Dr. J. A., Curator Amer. Mus. of Natural History, New York City. Bagg, Egbert, Utica, N. Y. Baily, William L., Philadelphia, Pa. Bane, Wm. de la, M. D., Minneapolis, Minn. Banks, J. W., St. Johns, New Brunswick, Bangs, Outram, Wareham, Mass. Barnes, R. M., Lacon, Ill. Barrows, Walter B., Department of Ag- riculture, Washington, D. C. Baskett, J. N., Mexico, Mo. Bates, Abraham H., Springfield, Ill. Beard, D. C., New York City. Belding, Lyman, Stockton, Cal. Benner, Franklin, Minneapolis, Minn. Bergtold, Dr. W. N., Buffalo, N. Y. Bicknell, Eugene P., New Y: ork City. Bill, Charles, Springfield, Mass. Bishop, Lorin B., New Haven, Conn. Blanford, W. T., Arts Club, London, Eng. Boies, A. H., U. S. Inspector of Works, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Bond, W. L., Sioux City, Iowa. Bowles, ip EH; Ponkapog, Mass. Brimley, C. S., Raleigh, N. C. Brimley, H. H., Raleigh, N. C. Brown, A. D., Pipestone, Minn. Brown, F. G., Framingham, Mass. Brown, Hubert H., Toronto, Canada. Brown, Nathan Clifford, Portland, Me. Butler, Amos W., Indiana Acad. Sci. Brookville, Ind. Buxham, Mrs. Clara E., Chicago, Ill. Cairns, John S., Weaverville, N. C. Caulk, Wm. B., Terre Haute, Ind. Chamberlain, Montague, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass. Chase, Virginius H., Wady Petra, Ill. Chapman, Frank M., Asst. Cur. Amer, Mus. Nat. Hist., New York City. Clarke, Samuel Fessenden, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. Cleveland, Mrs. Mary F., Providence, R.I. Clute, Willard N., Sec. Agassiz Assoc., Binghamton, N. Y Colburn, W. W., Springfield, Mass. Cooke, W. W., Prof. of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colo. Coombs, Frank E., Natick, Mass. Copeland, A. M., Springfield, Mass. Dana, Ray J., Golden, Colo. Daenzer, Carl, Editor. Daggett, Frank S., Prest. Board of Trade, Duluth, Minn. Denne, David, Montreal, Canada. Dixon, Frederic, Hackensack, N. Y. Dugés, Prof. Alfredo, Colegio del Estado, Guanajuato, Mex. Eddy, Miss Sarah J., Sec. Humane Edu- cation Committee, Providence, R. I. Elliot, Daniel G., Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Central Park, New York City. Fatio, Dr. Victor, Geneva, Switzerland. Finsch, Dr. Otto, Delmenhorst, near Bre- men, Germany. Fisher, Dr. Albert K., Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C Fisher, Willard J., Medway, Mass. Foster, Lyman S., "New York City. Freke, Percy E., Dublin, Treland. Fiirbringer, Dr. Max, Jena, Germany. Galvin, Prof. E. I., Chicago, Ill. Gill, Prof. Theodore, Cosmos Club, Wash- ington, D. C. Grinnell, Dr. George Bird, New York City. Gaudhi, Virchand, Sec. Jain Association, Bombay, India. Hardy, Manly, Brewer, Maine. Hargitt, Chas. W., Syracuse Univ., Syra- cuse, N. Y. Hargitt, Edward, Streatham Common, London, England. Hartzell, Prof. J.C., Claflin Univ., Orange- burg, Suc: Heuson, Harry V., Yokohama, Japan. Hoag, Benjamin, Stephentown, N. Y. Holub, Dr. Emil, Vienna, Austria. Hornaday, W. T., Buffalo, N. Y. Howe, C. P., Waukesha, Wis. Hoyt, Frank R., Hume, Allan Octavian, Rathney Castle, Simla, India. Hvoslef, D. J. C., Lanesboro, Minn. Ingalls, Hon. Chas. E., East Templeton, Mass. Ingraham, D. P., Pueblo, Col. Jacobs, J. Warren, Waynesburg, Pa. Jeffries, Wm. A., Boston, Mass. Johonnot, Rev. R. F., Oak Park, Ill. Keyser, Leander S., Springfield, ‘Ohio. Knowlton, F. H., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Die: Lawrence, George N., New York City. Leverkuhn, Dr. Paul, Sofia, Bulgaria. Lovell, Mrs. Mary F., Supt. Dept. of Mercy, Bryn Mawr, Pa. Frederic A., National Museum, Washington, D. C. Marcy, Oliver, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill. Marston, T. B., Flushing, N. Y. McCormack, F.W. , Leighton, Ala. Merriam, Miss F A., Washington, D. C. Meyer, Dr. A. P., ’Konigl. Zool. Mus., Dresden, Saxony, Germany. Miller, Olive Thorne, Brooklyn, N. Y. Mitchell, Prof. W. F., Chicago, Ill. Nehrling, Henry, Milwaukee, Wis. Lucas, , ADVISORY COUNCIL. It Newion, Prof. Alfred, Cambridge, Eng. Oberholser, Harry C., Wooster, Ohio. Oldfield, W. A., Sanilac, Mich. Palmer, Hon. Thomas W., President World’s Columbian Commission. poaeee ener T., Guilford College, Praeger, Wm. E., Keokuk, Iowa. Pratt, Rev. George B., Chicago, III. Pratt, Wm. E., Chicago, Ill. Prentiss, Dr. D. Webster, Washington, Quelch, ip Ts Commissioner from British Guiana to World’s Columbian Ex- position. Reichenow, Dr. Anton, Berlin, Prussia. Ridgway, Robert, Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D.C. Roraback, Geo. E., Englewood, Ill. Sage, John H., Sec. Amer. Ornith. Union, Portland, Conn. Saunders, W. E., London, Ontario. Scott, W. E. D., New York City. Shufeldt, Dr. R. W., Tacoma Park, Wash- ington, D. C. Smith, Philo W., St. Louis, Mo. Steere, Prof. J. B., Univ. of Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich. Stone, Witmer, Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadel- phia, Pa. Sumner, Mrs. H. A., Niles, Mich. Thompson, Maurice, Crawfordsville, Ind. Wallace, Prof. Alfred Russel, Frith Hill, Godalming, England. Warren, O. B., Palmer, Mich. Widmann, Otto, Old Orchard, Mo. Younge, Charlotte M., Winchester, Eng- land. PUBLISHER’S NOTE. Tue World’s Congress on Ornithology was held in con- formity with the announcement of the Committee, in Hall No. 23 of the Memorial Art Palace, at 2 Pp. m. of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Oct. 18th—21st, 1893. The few weeks intervening between the appointment of the Com- mittee and the sessions of the Congress did not enable the Committee to do all they wished to mature their plans for the co-operation of ornithologists living at a distance from Chicago, but they had reason to be much gratified at the measure of success attained, as witnessed by the large and interested audiences which attended every session, and the many papers which were read in person or by proxy. Inthe unavoidable absence of President Coues the chair was oc- cupied by other members of the Committee. The opening address was made by the late Rev. Dr. David Swing, who was followed by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Prof. D. D. Mc Cormick, and others. The programme prepared for the four sessions, and printed at the time, was carried out as far as possible, but some changes were necessitated by delay or non-reception of some papers which had been expected, and others were made for the convenience of those who presented papers in person. The papers selected for publication by the Committee include among those which were read before the Congress a number which reached their hands too late to be placed upon the programme of the sessions. The responsible editor, Dr. Elliott Coues, has given per- sonal supervision to every paper, and has read the proof of the entire book. THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is my pleasurable privilege to greet you with words of welcome on this auspicious occasion, and I am with you in spirit, though in person far from the scene of your gathering in the interest of that delightful pursuit to which many of the best years of my life have been devoted. I fondly hoped and fully intended to preside over your deliberations ; but the fates willed otherwise, and imposed a seemingly capri- cious migration westward to the shores of the Pacific, at the time I would have remained in the city by the inland sea, could I have consulted my own desire. But distance debars me not from cherishing the wish to say a few words you may be glad to hear on the USE AND BEAUTY OF BIRDS. Birds are not less useful than beautiful. It is said that beauty is its own excuse for being; it is said that a thing of beauty is a joy forever ; it may be said that birds add to their other charms the beauty of utility. One use of beauty is to stimulate and gratify our esthetic sense; perception of the beautiful is an end in itself, for it strengthens and develops some of our highest faculties, some of our finest feelings. One use of birds subserves this noble purpose; but other uses are theirs, of the sort to satisfy the most practical util- itarian, devoid though he be of all appreciation of abstract beauty. For I venture to assert, and hope to be able to show, that the degree of civilization which the human race has reached would have been difficult if not impossible with- out the assistance of our feathered friends. As we all know, the natural man was a wild beast in the beginning, not a little lower than the angels, and not much ne h 16 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. higher than an ape in the order of animated nature. He was also a carnivorous creature, hunted his prey in packs, and if he varied his diet of flesh it was only with wild fruits or roots. After awhile he learned the use of fire, and thus be- came a cook—that one thing which distinguishes man more prominently than anything else from every other animal. When he had acquired this art, he liked his meat better than he did before; this led to further reflections, and primitive man learned to pray—that is, to aspire, in the desire for further improvement of his lot, and seek means to that end. When man had become a cooking and a praying animal he was not far from discovering that two blades of grass could be made to grow where one had grown before. But to do this required much thought and work; he had to settle down to cultivate the ground successfully. The pursuits of the hunter are incompatible with the occupation of the farmer ; and one of the greatest strides which any people have ever taken from savagery toward civilization is that during which a nomadic, predatory tribe is transformed into tillers of the soil with fixed habitations. It is just at this turning-point in the development of human capacity for self-improvement that birds appear in a new light and take on new uses. To the wandering, hunting barbarian they were only objects of the chase, which he killed for food and clothing, as he did any other animal which could satisfy such primitive wants. He ate their flesh, and sucked their eggs, and sewed their skins to wear, and stuck their feathers in his hair to make himself look fine. Such barbarians are not all dead yet, nor of one sex only, nor con- fined to the tribes we call savage ; they are still in evidence, in our own midst, of our most primitive ape-ancestry. But very early in the art of agriculture observant and reflective farmers found insidious foes which often brought to naught the sweat of their brows. What to his hunting progenitors had been known only as a trifling annoyance, in buzzing and biting or stinging, offset in some cases by the morsels of food EL ELOTI COOLS. 17 furnished by certain insects, became to the tiller of the soil an innumerable host of new enemies, a myriad plague. In fine, birds and insects both assumed new relations to the human race when agriculture began, and this relation was on the part of birds helpful, on the part of insects hurtful, with few exceptions in either case. Nay, more; the pristine farmer we have in mind had not only to contend with insects as they were when agriculture was first practised, but with increasing numbers to which tilling of the soil and cultivation of plants gave rise; for every farmer breeds insects which would not exist but for his labor, as surely as he raises stock upon his land. It also happens to be a fact in nature, that the bird-world and the insect-world are things apart, separate and antagonistic. Nearly all birds are insectivorous, to some extent, and very many birds eat nothing but insects. In their reciprocal relations, bird-life and insect-life offer one of the most remarkable systems of checks and balances to be observed in all nature ; and with no natural order of things can man interfere with impunity. The damage done to agriculture by noxious insects is simply incalculable; no expert entomologist hesitates to place it at many millions of dollars a year, in our own or any other great country where farming is a national industry and a main source of wealth. This result is in spite of all the contrivances which the ingenuity of man has devised to hold insects in check; and all his efforts to that end are insignificant in comparison with the silent, ceaseless work done by birds in his behalf. It is not too much to say that successful agriculture would be impracticable without the help of birds; and I do not think more need be said, from the standpoint of sheer utilitarianism. The usefulness of birds as insecticides is measurable in money—and that is something everybody can understand. Thus the birds are a great army, self-equipped, self- maintained and self-ordained, to wage war on a grand scale against our national foes, their natural prey. Yet this is not the whole of their good work. They campaign against many 2 18 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. other enemies of our race, take the field in various other directions, and keep up what I may call guerilla raids, in- cessantly operative on the part of certain members of the feathered legions against hordes of injurious animals whose damage to the crops is in the aggregate only less than that wrought by insects. Such are the small rodents, which live entirely upon grass and grain, and whose sharp front teeth chisel the farmer out of no inconsiderable part of his cereal crops, besides nipping in the bud or root the vegetables of the gardener, and girdling the young trees of the orchardist. The dashing guerillas who fight against these enemies of ours are the birds of prey, the Hawks and Owls, a large proportion of which subsist mainly on mice and other small mammals, seldom varying this diet except with the insects they eat in common with most other birds. People are peculiarly blind to the good offices of the rapacious birds —a most useful class, whose occasional raids on the poultry- yard, even the habitual killing of small insectivorous birds by some Hawks, is no offset to the good they do us in destroy- ing noxious mammals, Instead of setting a price upon their heads, to promote their extinction, we should hold their lives priceless. ‘This is a particular instance of the general case, that no natural balance of power in the animal world can be by man disturbed with impunity. Insect pests and mammal plagues—these are the two great classes of the husbandman’s foes which birds are appointed to hold in check. There are still some other ways in which the feathered tribes show themselves the friends of man. Some countries are infested with venomous reptiles, so numerous and so deadly that the mortality resulting from their poisonous bites forms an item in the census, and the best means of destroying them engages the attention of gov- ernmental officials. Inall such countries there are rapacious birds which in the aggregate probably devour more noxious reptiles than are destroyed by the best directed efforts of man. a ELLIOTT COVES. 19 Yet once again : the lowly and indelicate yet most necessary office of scavenger is filled in all warm climates by certain birds of the Vulture tribe which live mainly upon carrion. These are unsightly and unclean, in the nature of the duties with which they are charged; but theirs is a useful life, and they should be respected accordingly. They abate the nuisance of decaying carcasses and all manner of filth, in a belt of warm country which reaches from the cities of our sunny South past the tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs to the Parsi Towers of Silence. The foregoing are the good offices which birds volunteer to take upon themselves in our service. We have yet to con- sider the duty we impose upon them, as our direct tax upon them for our own revenue, whether of profit or pleasure. This is levied mainly upon birds which in domestication be- come poultry, and in the wild state are known as game-birds —a collective term which covers mainly the four orders of columbine, galline, limicoline, and anatine birds. The poultry-yard is recruited entirely from three of these groups; but the limicoline birds, such as Woodcock, Snipe, Plover and their allies, are also objects of the sportsman’s incessant pursuit. Now it so happens in the economy of nature, that all these birds, in what I have called their volunteer relations to man, are neutral or indifferent. They are not technically insectivorous, nor do they devour noxious insects to any considerable extent ; neither do they harm man in any marked manner. But their utility to him is enormous, in furnishing him food-products, both in the flesh and in the egg, besides other important commodities in the feather, such as pens, beds, coverlets, pillows, and various elegant articles of apparel. I am of the opinion that. we habitually underrate these sources of wealth ; few of us, in fact, are sufficiently informed in the premises to come to reliable conclusions, though we eat poultry, game and eggs every day. I have seen a state- ment for which I cannot vouch, though it seems to me credible, that the total output of the poultry industry, in the 20 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. shape of hen’s eggs alone, exceeds annually that of all the mines of gold, silver, and other precious metals; but what- ever the actual statistics may be, the food and feather sources of revenue are certainly enormous, and few industries yield greater profit for the comparatively small capital required. No one denies or even questions man’s right to convert the animal world to his own uses; he may slay and eat, and in all ways command the life or death of creatures lower than himself in the scale of organization; he has always and will always do so, everywhere; his sovereignty in this regard is undisputed and indisputable. And thus it is that birds which of their own nature and volition are neutral or indif- ferent in the service of man, are forced into human relations of the most eminent practical utility, alike during their in- nocent lives and in their victimized deaths. Lest I appear as only a partisan of birds, or a special pleader in a case I may seem to have prejudged, let us hear the other side, and see what counter-arguments or even in- dictments can be brought to bear against the objects of our present solicitude. Let us keep upon the same plane of practical utility, measurable in money, and attempt some estimate of damage done by certain birds, confining atten- tion also to our own country, with which we are naturally most concerned. We have seen birds as our wholesale creditors ; can the account be balanced in any items with which they must be debited? Several such items are readily scored against birds. In the first place, some birds which are neutral in direct account with man become his enemies by their destruction of other birds which are useful to him. A part of the birds of prey are thus hurtful, not so much by their raids on poultry as by their destruction of insectivorous birds. Such rapacious species, in this country, belong especially to the genera falco and Accipiter, the members of which eat relatively few insects, and do not destroy very many small mammals or reptiles, but are active and effectual in their sanguinary ELLIOTT COVES. 21 attacks upon defenceless feathered tribes. A few of the very largest raptorial birds, by which Imean Eagles, commit occasional depredations upon weaklings of the shepherd’s or herdsman’s care; though as a rule the prey of these impos- ing birds is by no means commensurate with that prowess they are popularly supposed to possess, being in fact of very humble sort. Jt is practically difficult if not impossible to make the average American citizen draw distinctions with a difference in this case of raptorial birds. The agriculturists, and most sportsmen, may know a Hawk from a handsaw or a pitchfork, possibly a Hawk from a hernsaw or Heron, but do not know a Hawk from any other Hawk except that big ones are Hen-hawks or Chicken-hawks, and little ones are Pigeon-hawks or Sparrow-hawks ; while Owls are all one Owl for such persons. I also suspect that few legislators know that Hawks with toothed beaks, and those with long fan- shaped tails and short rounded wings, are the ones chiefly destructive to insectivorous birds, all other kinds being largely or chiefly destructive to noxious small mammals. The up- shot of the matter is, that the order Aaféores, taken as a whole, is vastly more beneficial than injurious to man’s in- terests ; and the practical compromise in the case should be, that all birds of prey should be protected by law in all our states and territories, at all seasons of the year. It is not probable that our useful insectivorous birds find their worst feathered enemies in the raptorial order, even in the genera /alco and Accipiter. That specious, unprincipled, and irrepressible libertine, so fair to see, ike many a human rake—the Blue Jay, and every riotous robber of the tribe to which Cyanocitta cristata belongs, are indictable at criminal law for the mischief they make among peaceable songsters, by breaking up happy homes and sucking eggs. The whole family Corvide, in fact, have deservedly a bad name in this regard. They are insectivorous, to some extent, but best described, in respect of their regimen, as omnivorous ; nothing eatable comes amiss with them, and all Ravens, Crows, Pies 22 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. and Jays are such enemies of better-behaved birds, that one may look unmoved upon their sable plumes or sky-blue wings, even on a woman’s hat. The Shrikes (Zanzide) are also cruel butchers of small song birds; but they are so largely insectivorous that in striking a balance of their good and evil deeds the account would probably be squared. The Cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a peculiarly insidious foe tomany of our most useful insect-eating song birds. The old-world Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which we fatuously imported a few years ago, for expected services as an alleged insecticide, though fitted for that réle neither by nature nor by art, is another enemy, by no means insidious, but offensively ag- gressive, obtrusively turbulent, ubiquitously noisy, dirty, and a nuisance—the only instance of total depravity in the bird- world, the only sinner beyond hope of redemption, the only outlaw upon whose scalp our lawmakers should set a price. Millions of dollars would not pay for the damage annually done by the Sparrow, both directly, in destruction of crops, and indirectly, by interfering with the good offices of in- sectivorous native birds. The foregoing are the chief if not the only cases which we find on the wrong side of the ledgerin consequence of harm done to distinctively useful birds, and thus indirectly to man. Let us look at some exemplary damages we may seek to recover for our direct injuries. Among birds which feed upon cereals, and therefore destroy crops to a greater or lesser extent, are the related families Corvide and Icteridz. Inthe former, the Crow is the most conspicuous—that much-abused bird, whose case has so long been in litigation—that astute, many-sided, alternately lustrous and shady character, whose activities have given us a household word—‘“ scarecrow.” The brief in this case would seem to be this: the Crow is as omnivorous as any bird can be; he is equally insectivorous and granivorous ; he does at least as much good as harm; the verdict is “not proven ;” he may be given the benefit of the doubt, and ELLIOTT COVES. 23 allowed to go scot free. It is a much more serious question of the /c¢terzd@ ; for in this, the American Blackbird family, we find direct and obvious injury to crops a consequence of the vast numbers of some species, their gregarious habits, and their fondness for cereals in late summer and early autumn, when their appetites for corn and rice are whetted sharpest. The chief offender is the Bobolink (Dolchonyx oryzivorus), when, in the yellowish garb of the Reedbird or Ricebird, in the fall, this multitudinous destroyer descends by millions upon the rice-fields of the Carolinas. The dam- age thus done is enormous; the solicitude of the rice-grower is lest he lose his whole crop in the milk, and all his energies must be directed against a devastation comparable to that wrought in some regions by the hateful grasshopper, the potato-bug, the grape phylloxera, and many another formi- dable insect pest. According to their respective numbers and opportunities, several species of Red-winged Blackbirds and Crow Blackbirds or Grackles, belonging to the genera Ageleus and Quzscalus, are similar offenders ; and it is not probable that all the insects they devour in the spring, or whilst rearing their broods in summer, amount to any considerable rebate of the loss they inflict upon the farmer by actual consumption of his crops. It is fortunate for him that in many localities the wild rice, Zzzanta aquatica, is abundant enough to feed a few millions of his hungry tax-collectors. If any birds should be excluded from the benefit of protective legislation, cer- tain species of /cferzde would be among the number. We hear much of damage done to various fruits of the orchard and garden by certain birds. The damage is actual and not overrated. In some places grapes, cherries, currants, and other small fruits require to be protected by netting, or few would be spared. This is a particular class of cases which needs to be considered on its own merits, and almost every different region introduces some particular factor, less applicable or inapplicable in some other region, under some other circumstances. Take the Robin, for example. This 24 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. well-known bird is as fond of fruit as we are, as good a judge of fruit, and has no more scruples than the average school- boy about stealing it. Yet the Robin (A/erula migratoria) belongs to a thoroughly insectivorous family (Zurdide), and is on the whole one of our most useful birds. The quantity of noxious insects consumed by every nestful of young Robins that ever was hatched is out of all proportion to the amount of fruit destroyed. The Robin is a public benefactor, and exacts but a small fee or reward for his valuable services. This is a type of the class of cases here in question; and since throughout this class, the little injury done is trifling in comparison with the great benefit conferred, all such birds should be fully protected by law. Thus far in my remarks, I have written without a trace of sentiment, without any insistence upon humane considera- tions, solely from the standpoint of enlightened selfishness. Here the case might rest as a strong appeal to the most mercenary motives for the preservation of birds from need- less, wanton, and misdirected destruction. Nearly all birds require our protection, for the good of our pockets, in a matter of dollars and cents. We need more bird laws, and better ones, more adequate to the emergency and more rigidly enforced, for our own protection, to say nothing of what right to life, liberty, and happiness we may choose to concede to birds, or elect to withhold from them. Such laws as we have are inadequate, only exceptionally enforced, and mainly concern open or close seasons in which certain game birds may or may not be killed. Some of our statutes are not only fatuous or fatally defective, but also positively pernicious. Witness that Pennsylvania law which offered a premium on the destruction of Hawks and Owls, and was only repealed when rodents overran the state in the most legitimate manner. This was like that California statute to promote the extermination of coyotes, which resulted in such a plague of rabbits that the destruction of these long-legged rodents required active and concerted public measures. It ELLIOTT COVES. 25 cannot be repeated too often, or be too strenuously insisted, that interference with the established checks and balances of nature is always unwise, generally dangerous, and not seldom disastrous. It was done when rabbits were introduced in Australia, where they have become a national nuisance. It was done when we introduced the Sparrow—upon the misguided, ignorant representations of such a man as the late Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, against my vigorous and even vehement protestations. The result of placing this sturdy, turbulent, and fecund foreigner under conditions of environ- ment favorable to limitless multiplication, is before you in the shape of an ineradicable pest, beyond the reach of any law that could be devised, and against which we might as well invoke the thunders of the Vatican in hopes of scaring the Sparrow away. But in all, or nearly all, other cases, wise, sound, strong laws could and should be enacted by the legislature of every State and Territory in the Union, to regulate relations between feathered and featherless bipeds, for the benefit of each party to the transaction. Such laws, all agreeing in the spirit of enlightened selfishness, perhaps also colored with humane sentiment, would differ in the letter according to locality; and such difference as there should be, to provide for varying geographical factors in the problem, should be based upon expert ornithological opinion. Such scientific testimony being given due weight, regarding proper open and close seasons for game birds, regarding species which it shall be unlawful to kill at any season, re- garding species which may be killed at all times, or whose kill- ing may be encouraged by proper provisions, the required laws cannot be made too stringently sweeping or too rigorously enforced by suitable penalties for their infraction, and requisite means of bringing offenders to justice. If any such legislation as I advocate be deemed advisable upon the utilitarian and even sordid considerations thus far advanced, how much more imperative will not the full re- quirements of this case appear, if we turn from any such 26 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. utility of birds as money can measure to some of the higher and nobler uses which birds subserve to man. Among these may be named the culture of the intellect. I speak now of the study of birds froma scientific standpoint—in a word, of ornithology. It is quite true that every page of the text- book of nature is educational. The most simple and lowly class of creatures, alike with those most complex and exalted in the scale of organization, may serve as objects of interested attention which train our powers of observation, as food for thought and reflection which nourishes and develops the mental faculties, as proper pabulum for intellectual growth. But it certainly seems to me that there is no fairer page in the whole book, none more open to the student of nature, none more legible to the lover of nature who can bring aver- age abilities to bear upon it, than that on which is inscribed the life-history of a bird. Perhaps I am partial to that par- ticular page, for my eyes first fell upon it when I was very young and plastic, and have never since that time been wholly withdrawn. But if so, it isa pardonable partiality, and one, moreover, with which the members of this Congress are in full sympathy. The first bird that ever arrested my atten- tion, to the best of my recollection, was a scarlet tanager, which flashed through the green foliage like a vision, and vanished. This was a revelation to a child; my senses seemed rapt, as if by a visitation from another sphere of wondrous, unspeakable beauty. The fiery trail of a meteor could not have left a more indelible impression than my mind received at that instant. I verily believe the sight of that tanager determined to some extent the particular bent of my mind for ornithology rather than for any other branch of natural history, and to an equal extent has colored my mind from that day to this. So far am I from regretting this, that I think the best mental training I have ever had, be it in the exercise of powers of observation, or in the correlated growth of capacity for ratiocination, has been in the study of birds, whether in the field or in the closet; and certainly ELLIOTT COVES. 27 some of the keenest enjoyments of which my nature has proven capable, some of the most lasting pleasures which life has had to offer me, have been derived from intellectual intimacy with feathered friends in their own world. When that tanager brought the message to me, I was not different from other children, except that I was rather more delicate than a perfectly healthy child should be, and there- fore perhaps more impressionable than the average boy ; but why should not many a boy take like pleasure in ob- serving birds, and derive from them like lessons of life? The natural sciences, as they are called—though I know of no unnatural science—are more taught in our common and high schools than they used to be when I was on the benches; and there is certainly no one department of natural history to which young folks take more kindly, or for which the materials are more copious and accessible, than the study of birds. I wish for and hope to see the day when some knowledge of ornithology, in its rudiments at least, shall be taught in all our schools, as a matter of course. I beg you to indulge my reminiscential mood a moment longer, for I wish to speak a little further on the utility of birds as objects of scientific study in the training of the intellect, and in so doing to draw further upon some personal experiences, to point a moral if not to adorna tale. In my intercourse with birds as a student, sentiment has always been subordinated to science, and in the course of my career I have sacrificed many thousands of birds to slake my thirst for knowledge. Thus, though my nature is neither cruel nor wanton, though I have always shrunk instinctively from inflicting needless pain or taking life lightly, my walk among birds was for many years neither harmless nor merciful to these objects of my scientific scrutiny. I used to be a keen sportsman, and was a crack shot during the height of my activities as a collector of specimens. Yet I can truly say that I never killed for the pleasure of killing, never witnessed 28 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. the pain of a wounded bird without a twinge, and seldom wasted any material secured at the cost of a bird’s life. I made it a rule to preserve the skins of all birds I shot, ex- cepting such as I killed for the table, and I presume there are to this day few large museums of the world which do not contain some specimens of my handiwork as a taxider- mist. I never thought, and do not now think, that there was anything wrong in this destruction of bird-life, great as it certainly was ; it seemed necessary to proper and laudable ends ; yet I should not like to do it alloveragain. Perhaps this is because there is no occasion for me to repeat my individual experiences, having learned what birds had to teach me at such a fearful cost to them; and certainly I should be the last to condemn in another the practices of which I have myself been guilty. This painful subject raises a large question, which each one must decide for himself, according to his own conscience. I am sure that no intimate knowledge of the science of ornithology can be had without killing birds for the purpose of examining their dead bodies; and if it be right to kill and eat to nourish our own bodies, it is not wrong to slay to slake our thirst for knowledge. This is a case in which the end seems to justify the means, and certainly it can make no difference to the bird that has been killed whether its poor body be eaten, or its skin be stuffed, or the whole be thrown away. The difference in this case would seem to be far more serious, for it affects a living human being, and not a dead bird. The moral quality of every human action resides in the motive, purpose and intention of the doer; if these be right, the result can hardly be wrong, though it may turn out to be a very sad necessity. If familiarity with suffering, through habitual infliction of pain and death, should result in callous- ness even, to say nothing of its possible ending in wanton cruelty from sheer love of inflicting pain, the person so affected becomes the victim of a moral degradation so pro- found, that it were far better he should never know anything ELLIOTT COOGLES. 29 about birds than suffer such grievous evil to be brought upon his spiritual nature by their innocent instrumentality. The whole lesson he might otherwise have learned from them has been missed in that event, and one way in which birds may be useful to his finer feelings has been entirely lost, if he has perversely failed to be taught by these beautiful ob- jects to be humane toward them, and feel a kindly, sym- pathetic sense of kinship with their bright and joyous lives, I shall never forget the first bird I ever shot—a Chipping Sparrow, when I was about fourteen years old, when I first went into the woods with some other boys, one of whom had a gun, and seemed to me as big as a man in consequence, though I think now it was a gun quite as dangerous at the butt as at the muzzle. When it came my turn to shoot, I was so excited I could hardly hold the thing; I trembled all over, and my breath came short. But I took good aim, withstood the shock of the explosion, and ran with the other boys to pick up my poor little victim. As I handled the tiny gory body, limp and ruffled, and smelt the odor of hot blood mingled with the smoke of burnt gunpowder, a sort of frenzy seized me, which now seems little short of a devilish intoxication, and my dreams were feverish that night. Many years passed before the identical sensation recurred, from the same savor of gunpowder and blood, but it was human blood this time, spilled in the thick of an Indian massacre in Arizona, when I was a young army officer. I mention these two incidents, remote from each other in time and place, still further apart in relative gravity, yet having some- thing absolutely in common, because each produced the same effect. I think this must be the very soul or spirit of wanton cruel killing ; and if so, it is a very terrible thing, to be sedulously shunned as a thing wholly evil in its nature. I can conceive of few things more horrible than to be held fast under such a spell. Yet habitual indulgence of the propen- sity to kill brings about something even more injurious to the soul than any cruelty one can commit in a moment of 30 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. excitement, if it results in cold-blooded indifference to the taking of life and the infliction of pain. The climax of this horrible perversion of our better nature is probably reached only by some celebrated vivisectionist, to whom all possible torture is a tame and humdrum daily routine. But I do not think that any human knowledge is worth having at such an awful cost to a human being. I will not dwell upon such a subject ; but I have brought up these considerations to show the perilous possibilities of the ornithologist’s career. Some others may be less fortunate than I have been, those whose natures have something more akin to cruelty than mine has proven to possess; and I wish to warn all such of the risk they run, if their intellectual study of birds be not duly tempered with tender sentiments of mercy and loving kind- ness. For if these qualities of the heart, which do the highest honor to our humanity, and tend to the truest development of our natures along the pleasant paths which our inmost con- sciousness points out as best for us to follow—if such heart- felt emotions are never stirred to lend their tender grace to the severities of intellectual achievements, cultivation of the esthetic faculties during the pursuit of ornithology becomes impossible. It would be far better to let the birds alone than to misuse or abuse them. Beauty is theirs, in a thousand ways capable of ministering to man’s exquisite de- light ; the utility of such beauty as theirs in unfolding his spiritual insight is not less, I dare say is even greater, than that more material usefulness upon which I have already dwelt; and if this greatest beauty of birds cannot be ap- preciated, at least it ought not to be desecrated. The mel- lowest pipe is played in vain to the deaf, to the blind the brightest play of color, the utmost gracefulness of motion, all perfection of form, are alike indifferent ; but every one whose senses are alert, whose imagination is vivid, and whose intellect is balanced, will find in the world of birds a world of use and beauty. ELLIOTT COUES. f. A. ALLEN. 31 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. BY ya. ALLEN. American Museum of Natural History, New Vork. THE migration of birds has long attracted popular atten- tion, references to the subject dating back to the days of the prophet Jeremiah, who says: “ Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming.” The early naturalists speculated upon the seasonal move- ments of birds; they noted the periodical appearance and disappearance of the ‘birds of passage,’ but had little knowl- edge as to where they went for their winter quarters. Certain European birds were even supposed to be annually trans- formed into other species for a portion of the year, or else to pass the season of winter in a state of hibernation at the bottom of streams or ponds. It was thought that the Cuckoo became changed into a Hawk in winter, and that Swifts, Swallows and Rails descended into the mud at the bottom of ponds at the approach of cold weather. In later times the winter haunts of many species were gradually discovered, and the fact of their long flights of migration became wellestablished. Yet the matter remained to a large degree involved in mystery; the migrations of birds were thought to be in a sense automatic, under the impulse and guidance of a blind, unerring “ instinct ’’—in other words, little short of miraculous. During recent years the phenomena of migration have been made the subject of careful and systematic investigation by thousands of ob- 32 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. servers, often under the direction of committees of learned societies specially appointed forthe purpose. The literature of the subject has rapidly increased, and each year:sees the publication of elaborate reports giving in detail the move- ments of birds as observed in various countries, especially in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the British Islands, and the United States and Canada. Much new light has thus been thrown on the cause and the manner of migra- tion, till now the general facts of the subject may be said to be well known. The migration of birds evidently dates back to the close of the Tertiary, when great changes in the climatic condi- tions of the northern hemisphere began to prepare the way for the subsequent ice period which buried so large a part of the northern lands under a heavy ice-cap and reduced the present warm temperate latitudes to semi-arctic condi- tions. Birds, in common with other forms of life, were either forced to migrate or suffer extinction under the new condi- tion. As previously a warm temperate or subtropical climate extended northward to Spitzbergen and Greenland, there was no occasion for birds to migrate, and subtropical birds, as well as subtropical plants, found a congenial home almost within the Arctic Circle. Later on the ice-cap melted; the area of habitable land increased; but the climatic conditions of the temperate latitudes had become transformed. Instead of a nearly uniform temperature throughout the year, a comparatively warm summer was followed by an icy winter; while a considerable area became / opened up as a congenial summer home to a great multitude of birds, the severity of the winter climate forced them to retire to more southern haunts to pass the colder season. We have here what seems a natural and reasonable ex- planation of the origin of migration, and as such it is now currently accepted by ornithologists. In this way, it is be- lieved, the habit of migration not only originated but has become so firmly established as to be an irresistible heredi- J. A. ALLEN. 33 tary impulse, as inherent and mandatory as the “instinct” of reproduction. But why do birds migrate? In consider- ing this question it must be borne in mind that there is everywhere a constant struggle for existence—that through- out nature the birth-rate is far above the possibilities of permanent increase. Hence, in the bird world, as elsewhere, every station affording favorable conditions for existence must be occupied; there can be no unutilized corners. Many birds are organized to subsist only upon either insects or soft fruits, or upon both combined; these abound in summer in regions far to the northward of where they are found in winter. Thus many of our Swifts, Swallows, Warblers and Flycatchers can range in summer to the very borders of the Arctic Circle, where for a few weeks they find an abundance of food and a congenial temperature. Here they nest and rear their young, but are forced to retire at the approach of autumn, retreating gradually before the southward advance of the cold wave, passing through the middle latitudes in September, and reaching the tropics in October or November, the time varying more or less accord- ing to the species. Here they remain till the increased warmth of March or April awakens the procreative impulse and admonishes them of the return of genial conditions further northward. ‘Then they begin to retrace the journey toward their summer haunts, keeping pace so exactly with the advance of the season as not to lose even a day of the brief interval available for their sojourn in their semi-arctic home. They are thus wanderers for three-fourths of the year. Evidently our northern-breeding insectivorous and berry-eating birds could not survive a winter at their breed- ing grounds. They might perhaps live the whole year in the tropics, and possibly in the lower temperate latitudes— at the risk, however, of overcrowding the regular occupants, and of also leaving a habitable area unoccupied. As a matter of fact nature not only “ abhors a vacuum,” using the phrase in a strict sense, but allows no waste places; living 3 34 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. space is always at a premium. Near kin of the Warblers, Swallows and Flycatchers which visit the subarctic and cold temperate districts are found in the tropics and throughout the warmer temperate latitudes; while the tropical forms are non-migratory, those breeding in the temperate latitudes are less so than their more northern relatives; they remain, owing to the longer summer, a much longer period at their breeding stations and have a shorter journey to reach their winter quarters. This may serve as a general illustration, showing that the absence of proper food in the high north forces the summer insectivorous birds to leave these regions for warmer lati- tudes, where a perpetual summer insures at all times the supply of food their peculiar organization renders necessary. In short, as our knowledge of the habits and migrations of birds increases it becomes more and more evident that the cause of the autumnal migration is failure of proper food at the bird’s breeding stations, the breeding habitat being also the bird’s true home. Elsewhere it is an exile and a wanderer, most of the interval between the breeding seasons being spent in leisurely journeying to and from its breeding station and its winter haunts. In many instances birds remain at comparatively northern localities during the winter if, through some unusual cir- cumstance, they find their favorite food abundant, even if the weather prove more than usually severe. This is often illustrated in the case of the Robin and several species of Warblers and Sparrows. Yet, the fact remains that, in the case of a great many insectivorous species which breed in the high north, failure to migrate would bring certain de- struction, due to decrease of temperature. This is shown by the fact that not unfrequently many birds are destroyed on their northward migration in spring by encountering too great a fall of temperature in late, unseasonably severe spring storms. Why migratory birds ever leave their winter quarters is J. A. ALLEN. 35 not so obvious, since in most instances it cannot be due to a failure of the food supply, nor to any absolute incompat- ibility of climate. We are forced then to conclude that it is due partly to a habit of such long standing that it has become irresistible, or in a certain sense a part of the bird’s organism, but partly, and perhaps mainly, to the necessity of returning to a region to which it has become so thoroughly adapted as to be indispensable to its well-being during the season of procreation. The return tothe breeding station in spring has often been attributed to “strong home-love.” That this home-love exists is shown by the return of birds to the same locality—even to the same nesting-place—for many successive years, of which there is so much proof that it is commonly assumed to be the rule in most species. It is certainly beyond question that birds do not select their breeding haunts in any haphazard way, journeying north along a vague course and stopping to nest wherever the proper conditions of season and other surroundings happen to prove favorable. Hence the impulse that governs their spring movements has been often loosely termed the ‘“‘ home instinct.” As already shown, the impulse to migrate, or rather the habit of migration itself, must have originated ages ago, as the result of a profound change in the climatic conditions of the earth following the close of the Tertiary period, and that through the lapse of thousands of centuries the habit of migration has passed down from generation to generation till it has become hereditary—as much so as any other trait— as that of nest-building, for example, in respect to choice of materials and the peculiar architectural effects characteristic of different species ; or of laying eggs with distinctive color- markings, etc. The subject of migration has perhaps been rendered need- lessly complicated by considering the vernal and autumnal movements separately, and trying to find a different and special cause for each. A complete cycle of migration con- sists necessarily of two movements—from the breeding sta- 36 THE MIGRAZION OF BIRDS. tion to the winter quarters and then back again. As the one movement is thus necessarily the complement of the other it is hardly needful to seek for a separate cause for each, the two together constituting migration in a complete sense. The impulse to leave the breeding grounds may be prompted by a reduction of temperature and a failing food-supply ; the impulse to return may be more intimately associated with the function of reproduction and the consequent necessity of returning for this purpose to the proper home of the species—to a region of peculiar conditions to which the species has for long ages been undergoing special adapta- tion. This is perhaps the best explanation we can give of the origin and causes of migration. How birds find their way over the thousands of miles of land and sea that often separate their winter and summer homes has always been the subject of much speculation. Until recently this wonderful power has been attributed to “instinct.” This isa way of saying that the matter is in- volved in mystery, but also implying a sort of supernatural power on the part of the migratory bird. As, however, the facts of migration have become year by year better known the subject has lost much of its former obscurity. Itis now known that birds migrate mostly by night, and as a rule at great altitudes ; their sense of vision being acute, they are thus able to discern for long distances the more prominent features of the landscape—the coast lines, the larger rivers, and the more prominent mountain chains, with which their principal routes are found in a measure to coincide. Further- more, birds migrate in large numbers at the same time, those of different species becoming mingled and moving in loose straggling parties; in this way the individuals of a given species may be always within sight or hearing of other members of their own kin or of the general concourse; it being the habit of most birds while migrating to utter their peculiar call-notes at frequent intervals. It is claimed by some observers that in the fall migration Ji Ay ALLEN, 37 the young birds of the year, which have never before made the journey, are the first of their species to move south, or, in other words, precede their parents. Others claim that some of the first birds to leave are always old birds, and that they act as guides to the inexperienced young birds. It is evident, however, that it matters little which view be cor- rect, for in either case the young birds become mingled with the general throng bound on their southward journey and are not dependent on either their own resources or on other members of their own species for direction. This implies, of course, strong memory on the part of the old birds, proof of which is not wanting in their ability to find their way back, spring after spring, to their accustomed nesting-places—not merely to the same general region, but to the same tree or cliff or other shelter to which the same pair of birds return year after year for many years. This being true—in proof of which there is much strong evidence—it is easy to believe that they can readily recall the general features of the country they may have to crossin their semi-annual wanderings. Birds exercise more or less choice in respect to meteor- ological conditions in regulating their migratory journeys. They prefer fair weather, and do not generally attempt pro- tracted flights during overcast or stormy weather. The direction and force of the wind seems a secondary considera- tion, but at times undoubtedly exerts considerable influence. Temperature, however, is the most important condition; a considerable decline hastening the migratory movement in autumn and greatly retarding it in spring, at which season, a severe and protracted period of cold weather may check the advance for daystogether. A warm wave in spring, on the other hand, greatly hastens the advance and gives rise to a coincident ‘“‘wave of migration,’’ so familiar to all field-observers, marked by a sudden and great increase in the number of birds, as regards both species and individ- uals, at a given point. 38 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. But these migratory journeys of the birds are replete with accidents due mainly to the elements. They are often caught by cyclonic storms while ez vouzfe and blown hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles from their course, and not unfrequently out to sea, where they perish by thousands from exhaustion and drowning. Or they become confused by fogs or thick weather, and for the time being are lost. It is at such times that they flit about lightships and light- houses, and are killed by flying against the bewildering lantern, which proves to them a beacon of destruction in- stead of a guide to safety. Not unfrequently they are de- stroyed in spring by unseasonable storms, they having been lured north by a warm wave, or a period of mild weather, only to encounter greater inclemency than they are able to withstand. Every few years, great loss of life from this cause overtakes many of the later migrants, as the War- blers, Swallows, Tanagers and Flycatchers. Instances are on record where a species, as the Purple Martin in Massa- chusetts many years ago, after having reached its breeding station has been wiped out of existence over a considerable region, Causing a great scarcity of the species for years after- ward over the area of destruction. In fact, in view of all the varied accidents and disasters birds are liable to en- counter during migration it is almost a matter of surprise that the natural increase is sufficient to offset the annual loss. REV, LEANDER S. KEVSER. 39 SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. BY REV. LEANDER S, KEYSER. Many persons seem to be possessed of carnivorous, or at least semi-carnivorous, proclivities. They do not appear to be happy unless they can see blood flow. From the small boy with his air-rifle to the professional collector, they have an itch for killing. The other day I encountered several doughty lads who had just shot three Chipping Sparrows, and when I asked them why they had committed such a wanton crime against the bird creation, they became mute, unable to assign any reason whatever for their conduct; for, of course, like their fellow-slaughterers of larger growth, they did not like to admit that it was their natural depravity— otherwise, unnatural meanness—that prompted them. I am sometimes tempted to believe that the strongest argument for the theory of the evolution of the human family from lower animals, especially wolves, hyenas and other blood- thirsty creatures, is their propensity to pursue and kill. Be that as it may, it still is man’s business as a moral and rational being to overcome the carnal inclinations of his nature. He must set up a stout Captain Resistance in his soul, as Bunyan would have it, who shall guard well the portals against external foes, and quell any mutiny that may arise within the gates. It is not in place, perhaps, to deliver a moral lecture at this hour, but I may be permitted to say that it might be a good and necessary moral discipline for the man or boy who is tempted to shed innocent blood, stoutly to stay his hand. 40 SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. That thousands of innocent birds are slaughtered every year for no sufficient reason needs no asserting and brooks no denying. When will the “reign of terror ” cease in bird- land? Thesportsman’s and collector’s guns make the woods daily resound with sharp, echoing reports which must strike horror to many a birdling’s heart ; and with almost every crash of exploding powder a sweet, happy, guileless life goes out. One might almost be pardoned for repeating the Psalmist’s despairing payer « ‘‘ How long, O Lord, how long?” That this wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter is ex- tremely unwise, not to say suicidal, goes without saying. Should a man passing through a region infested with brig- ands turn upon his protectors and slay them, he would not do a more unwise deed than men do when they slay the birds, which are our natural guardians against myriads of biting, stinging, blighting and obnoxious insects. Why, in the economy of nature, these noisome insects were made, I need not stop to inquire, for this is not a speculative but a prac- tical discussion. I must therefore let Sidney Lanier’s dreamy inquiry respecting the sustenance of the Mocking- bird go unanswered : “ Sweet Science, this large riddle read me plain : How may the death of that small insect be The life of yon trim Shakespeare on the tree ? ” Being so extremely fond of feathered folk, I am half- disposed to say that the insects were made for the birds, and as to the birds themselves, why, they are “their own excuse for being.” Yet mayhap the entomologist would say, “that is an explanation that does not explain.” Well, no matter. We know that many destructive insects do infest the land, and that, if permitted to live and thrive, they play sad havoc with our gardens, orchards and woodlands; and, besides, we are just as well aware that birds are the natural destroyers of these insects. Such are the facts, explain them as you will. JI may rack my brain to discover why so Rat RENATO REV. LEANDER S. KEYSER. AI many weeds persist in growing in my garden, but my specula- tions ought not to prevent my making a vigorous use of the hoe, which is the effective exterminator of the growths of weed- dom. The hearer may make his own application of the parable. Go out to the woods on a spring or autumn day, and watch the armies of Warblers, Vireos, Flycatchers, Woodpeckers and other birds busily plying their vocation of insect-hunting, and it willsoon dawn upon you that they must be the natural preservers of our forests. I verily believe that if, in some way, all birds could be kept out of our woodlands for two years in succession, when the third spring came, the trees, spite of the wooing of sun and rain and dew, would continue as gray and bare as when January snow-storms made dismal music through their leafless branches. The fecundity of the insect world is so great and their appetite for every green thing so ravenous that the earth would soon become a desert had not a natural check been provided. What can be more desolate than a tree stripped of its foliage by a troop of worms! In view of the usefulness of the birds I do not pity the slayer of them if he is stung and pestered half to death by gnats and mosquitoes when he prowls through the woods on his godless errand. It would be impossible to estimate arithmetically the service rendered by these winged scavengers of our wood- lands and fields. One spring day I witnessed the performance of a dainty Hooded Warbler (Sylvania mitrata) for overan hour. It was in a sparse woodland by an old gravel-bank. During that time he was scarcely still a moment. No sooner had he caught and disposed of one insect than he swung out grace- fully on the air and captured another. If he averaged two insects a minute—and I think he did—he must have de- stroyed 120 in an hour; and if he worked only eight hours a day, he would have rid the woods of 960 insects more or less harmful to vegetation. Even if that should be twice too high an estimate per day, it must be remembered that the 42 SLAUGHTER OF THE [NNOCENTS. little golden gourmand was only one of perhaps a thousand insect-eating birds in that timber tract. How many millions of injurious insects must be destroyed in a single season, all of which, if permitted to live, would prey on the vitals of vegetable life ! On a hot summer day I sat for an hour and a half on the top of a rail fence, watching a mother Dickcissel (Spzza americana) feeding her bantlings in the grass. The sun broiled, and I boiled—or, at least, my blood did. Still I kept my temper sweet, my interest in the little drama enacted before me lending a saccharine element, I doubt not. The little madam was kept very busy with her housewifely duties. Timing her with my watch, I found that she often flew away and returned to her brood with an insect in a half minute, sometimes in a quarter of a minute; she was seldom gone more than a whole minute, though once or twice an interval of two minutes elapsed. It is not to be supposed that she kept up such vigorous assiduity for a whole day, though why her nestlings required so much food at that particular time I do not know. Possibly it was meal-time with them. But if a bird should destroy even 400 insects during the 14 or 15 working hours of a summer day, in the months of May, June and July, it would rid the fields and woods of 36,800 insects—a service by no means to be despised. Nature has adapted these insects to the require- ments of bird-life for reasons of her own, and hence has endowed them with a wonderful procreative power; and, therefore, man should be careful how he destroys this wisely established balance. Playing at see-saw with nature is always a dangerous pastime. Even Hawks and Owls serve a useful purpose, and are rather man’s friends than his foes, as has been conclusively proved in the report recently issued on these birds by the United States Department of Agriculture. Heretofore we have thought that Hawks and Owls ought to be slain indis- criminately. A Hawk was a Hawk, and his only use was to REV. LEANDER S. KEYSER. 43 make a target for the gunner. His only business was supposed to be to make excursions to the farmyard in search of billsome messes of domestic fowl. But this timely vol- ume shows that not all Hawks are hawkish—at least, they do not all feed to any large extent on birds and poultry. It is true, the Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter velox and A. coopert) have a sweet tooth—or, rather, beak—for chicken and small birds of various species ; but in the dissection of six stomachs of Harris’ Hawk (Para- buteo unicinctus harrist) not one fowl of any kind was found, but only parts of small mammals. The Red-tailed Hawk (Luteo borealis) is an exceedingly brisk, strong-winged bird ; yet a carefully compiled table showing the contents of 562 stomachs demonstrates that these birds destroy a hundred times as many mice, moles and other harmful small mammals as birds and poultry. The Red-shouldered Hawk (Luteo Zineatus) makes himself still less obnoxious and still more useful, living chiefly on snakes, beetles, spiders, lizards and grasshoppers, as well as mice, shrews and moles. Swainson’s Hawk (Luteo swainsont) seems to avoid the farmyard entirely, finding locusts, grasshoppers, beetles, lizards, gophers and sper- mophiles more to his taste than domestic fowl. The same may be said of the Broad-winged, Rough-legged and Fer- ruginous Hawks. As to the Owls, it is simply astonishing what secrets are revealed by an examination of craws, showing that they are much more reputable birds than most people suppose. While some of them occasionally visit Farmer Gruffman’s henroost, all of them find their diet chiefly in the fields and woods, where mice, chipmunks and snakes abound. We think every farmer and sportsman ought to study this useful volume, and learn to identify the various species of Hawks and Owls before he begins the war of extermination, so that he will not unwittingly massacre his friends instead of his foes. The destruction of beautiful and innocent birds for fashion- 44 SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. able ornament deserves nothing but castigation, and that in unmeasured terms. No apology can be made for such wanton cruelty. It is matter for great rejoicing that the wearing of birds on ladies’ bonnets has almost gone out of vogue, and is scarcely considered good form to-day; at least, such is my impression, although I do not profess to be posted on fashionable modes and fads. My opinion is, however, that a brilliant-hued bird on a woman’s bonnet would now be considered Jdozsterous—which some of you may recognize as a synonym for “loud.” That surely is an indication that the Millennium is coming, and we might already begin to sing, ‘ All hail, the glorious morn!” with- out being guilty of an anachronism. A bird in the bush is worth forty on the head. It is apt to kill more troublesome insects. Between the man who shoots a beautiful bird and sells it to the fashion-monger, and the woman who wears it, the moral distance is infinitesimal. There is another class of slayers of the innocents who deserve a word of rebuke. I may here be treading on delicate ground, and the technologist in bird-lore may take exceptions to some things I shall say. However, to get to the point at once, I refer to the professional collector—the man who massacres birds and burglarizes their nests for glimmering lucre; the clutcher who is forever clutching after “clutches.” I may be accused of lacking the true scientific spirit, and of being a mere sentimentalist ; but I retaliate, if you please, that a little more sentimentality, in the sense of tenderness of heart, would not hurt a good many of the naturalists of this and other countries. If science consists merely or chiefly in addition and multiplica- tion tables, and never-ending catalogues of Latin names, then let us slay all the sweet creatures around us, and live on statistics instead of fruitsand cereals. But I suspect that there is as much science in discovering a live bird’s real character, learning his cunning ways, his likes and dislikes, as in classifying a dead bird’s bones. REV. LEANDER S. KEVSER. 45 However, before I go farther, I desire to say that no one should object to the gathering of avian museums in colleges and large cities for purposes of scientific investigation and to assist the beginner in the task of identifying species. We have no quarrel with the true specialist, who has rendered valuable service to all lovers of birds and who is as merciful as he can be. But for the professional collector who pursues his calling to gratify the whims of private persons, mere curio-hunters, no excuse can be made. A collector in Canada sends me a long list of eggs and “clutches,” and asks me if I do not want to buy. He doubtless has sent the same harrowing list to hundreds of other bird-lovers. He wants to dispose of his present stock, because he is soon going to the far north on an extensive collecting tour, and will doubtless return with many rare eggs, which he hopes to dispose of to good advantage. No! I do not want one of those eggs, for it would be nothing to me but a memento of man’s inhumanity to birds. Every egg would tell me of a bird’s heart sob. If this gentleman should make an expedition for the purpose of studying the habits of birds in the Arctic regions without killing them or robbing their nests, and then should publish his discoveries, I should be glad to buy his book. But his empty egg-shells—no, I want none of them. The ghosts of birds that might have been would haunt my dreams. If that is sentimentality, then I am a sentimentalist of the rankest ilk. | Is there anything so very valuable to science in extreme minutiz? Must a hundred birds be ruthlessly slaughtered to find out whether there are a few inches of difference in their lengths from beak to tail, or from wing-tip to wing-tip? Is it an extraordinary contribution to science to be able to report that a typical clutch of the beautiful Prothonotary Warbler’s eggs measured .72 X.57,.71 X.56, .70X.58, .71 X.54, .70X.59, and .72x.58? How long will the collector himself remember those figures? Suppose he had studied the 46 SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. dainty manners of the little feathered pair, and then spun a romance about them, or composed a poem, or even written a vivid descriptive sketch in plain prose, that would have been an addition to science indeed, as well as to literature. Let us have public museums, and perhaps at rare intervals a private collection might be permissible ; but let us, as lovers of “our little brothers of the air,” raise our voices in protest against slaughter and robbery for mere decorative purposes, or to gratify the momentary whims of gatherers of bric-a-brac. It is difficult to understand how so many persons can take a charming bird’s life without compunction. It is a sin against their zsthetic nature. See that Blackburnian or Chestnut-sided Warbler glancing about in the tree; now he balances atilt on a twig; now he clings back downward to a spray ; now he poises like a hummer before a leaf cluster; now he flits and tilts from stem to stem so airily, so fairily, his varied colors flashing in the sun like the glittering facets of adiamond. He is a sonnet in feathers—lightness of air and sunshine embodied—rhythm caught in a living form ! A. W. BUTLER. 47 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS IN THE OHIO VALLEY, WITH NOTES ON THEIR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE IN SUMMER. BY A. W. BUTLER, BROOKVILLE, IND. In 1838 Dr. Jared P. Kirtland had not met with the American Crossbill (Zoxza curvirostra minor) in Ohio or Indiana. Dr. R. Haymond omitted it from his “ Birds of Southeastern Indiana” in 1856. Dr. J. M. Wheaton re- ported it from Ohio in the winter of 1859-60. Evidently it was quite well known to Dr. Haymond in 1869. The winter of 1868-69 they were very abundant in the vicinity of Cin- cinnati, according to Chas. Dury ; this was doubtless the case at other places also. The range of the species, at this time, was supposed to be northern North America, south in the Appalachian mountains into Pennsylvania, and extending in winter irregularly over much of the United States. A letter from Mr. C. E. Aiken, of Salt Lake City, Utah, informs me that this species became very abundant in Chicago in July and August, 1869, and remained until late inthe fall. They fed greedily upon seeds of sunflowers and were so sluggish that one could approach within a few feet of them, and they fell an easy prey to boys with catapults. In the latter part of August of the same year, he found them common in Lake County, Ind. He also notes that they were not rare the succeeding year in the vicinity of Chicago. Dr. F. W. Langdon notes the capture of a single specimen from a flock of six or eight at Madisonville, near Cincinnati, O., Nov. 30, 1874. In the winter of 1874-75 Mr. Eugene P. 48 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. Bicknell noted their presence in the Lower Hudson valley, and in April of the latter year found their nest. In the same article is noticed their occurrence about New York City in late spring and early summer, on Long Island in midsum- mer, and in the Bermudas from March to May (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. v., pp. 7-11). Mr. E. W. Nelson, in his paper on “Birds of Northeastern Illinois,” read before the Essex Institute, Dec. 4, 1876, says this Crossbill was “formerly a common winter resident; now rare.” Messrs. Dury and Freeman (Jour. Cin. Soc. N. H., 1879, p. 4) note its occurrence at Westwood, O., in 1879. Dr. j. M. Wheaton (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1879, p. 62) gives the fol- lowing account of the occurrence of the species in Ohio: “On the 18th of June last Mr. Charles Hinman killed one of these birds out of a flock of eight or ten which visited the coniferous trees in his garden in this city [Columbus]. The specimen which came into my possession by the kindness of Mr. Oliver Davie was a male, not in full plumage. I have since learned that the Red Crossbill has remained during the season in the vicinity of Cleveland in considerable numbers, and is reported to have nested there.” In com- menting on this note (Ohio Geol. Survey, vol. iv., Zoology and Botany, p. 317), Dr. Wheaton says: “I was unable to learn whether its nest had been actually discovered,” and adds: “It has been known to nest in Indiana within a few years.” I regret that I have been unable to get any clew to the authority upon which this statement is made. Prof, A. J. Cooke, in writing of the birds of Michigan, says of the American Crossbill: “Occasional in summer. Dr. H. A. Atkins took nests of this species at Locke, July 13, 1880,” It had previously been reported as breeding in Minnesota. In July and August, 1880, they were noted at Rugby, Tenn. (Oologist, vol. v., p. 78; Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. vi., p. 56). Dr. C. H. Merriam notes it asan “abundant resident ” in the Adirondack region. He says itis “rather scarce and ir- regular in summer, but the commonest bird in winter and A, W. BUTLER. 49 early spring. Breeds in February and March while the snow is still four or five feet deep on the level and the tem- perature below zero (Fahr.). Have taken fully fledged young in early April” (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club. 1881, p. 229). Mr. C. W. Beckham (“ Birds of Kelson County, Kentucky,” Ky. Geol. Sury., p. 24) says: “A flock of six or eight of these birds appeared here on Nov. 18, 1882, in some pine trees, the first time I ever observed them. They remained only a day or two, and none were seen until the 17th of March following, when I shot eight out of a flock of about twenty in the same place where they had previously been seen. Several flocks were observed about the same time near Bloomfield and Glenville in this county, and excited con- siderable comment on account of their queer bills. The weather at the time was quite mild, so that their appearance here was probably due to some other cause.” The winter of 1882-3 they were unusually abundant in many localities between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. Prof. B. W. Evermann first observed them at Bloomington, Ind., Feb. 10, 1893. This was the second record for the state. For some time after they were common in Monroe County. March 15, 1883, Mr. E. R. Quick reported having seen a single specimen near Brookville, Ind. April 2, my attention was attracted to a peculiar crackling sound which came from the pine trees in my yard at Brookville. Close investigation revealed the fact that the cause was a flock of Crossbills. ‘They were shelling the seeds out of the pine cones, and the breaking of the cones made the sound which attracted my attention. I observed others were upon the ground feeding upon the seeds in the fallencones. April 3, I saw six more in my yard. April 4, I saw one in a flock of Pine Finches. April 5, Mr. Quick noted one. Of those observed but one wasinthe red plumage. Prof. B. W. Ever- mann saw a few at Delpha, Carroll County, Ind., the middle of March, 1883. At the same place about twelve were seen December 26, 13884. 4 50 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. Mr. J. W. Byrkit informs me that they were very abundant at Michigan City, Ind., in the winter of 1883-4. Miss H. E. Colfax, in her report of birds noted at the lighthouse at the same place, gives them Jan. 16, 1884. In the winter of 1883-4, Prof. Evermann reported them very common in Mon- roe County, Ind. The Ornithologist and Oologist, vol. viii, p. 68, contains an account by A. H. Helme of their breeding April 10, 1883, near Miller’s Place, L. I. Mr. Robert Ridgway (The Auk, I., p. 292) notes the probable breeding of the Red Crossbill in central Maryland, in May, 1884. Mr. F. C. Browne reported their breeding in eastern Massa- chusetts in the summer of 1884 (The Auk, II., p. 105). In the winter of 1884-5 they were tolerably common in Monroe County, Ind. (Blatchley ; Hoosier Naturalist, 1886, p. 170). The late Mr. C. H. Bollman noted them quite common in the same county through March, April, and early May, 1885. He saw them first March 2, and last observed them May 12. Mr. J. W. Byrkit informs me that he saw the first Crossbill for the year on March 24, 1885. Headds: “I am not quite positive, but think the Crossbills breed here, as they make their appearance about this time and leave for the north about the middle of May.” Mr. Charles Dury informs me they were abundant at Michigan City, Ind., one winter, which he thinks was 1885. He also reported Pine Finches and Redpolls from the same locality the same year. Prof. E. B. Evermann reported it from Carroll County, Ind., March 27, 1885. I am indebted to Mr. E. M. Kindle for the in- formation that Mr. Samuel Hunter reported a pair of Red Crossbills to have bred at Bloomington, Ind., in 1885. Mr. Hunter informed him that they nested in a pine tree and that the nest was made exclusively of pine burrs. Mr. R. R. Moffitt informs me that Red Crossbills were taken in Tippecanoe County, Ind., in 1885, and says they nested there. Prof. B. W. Evermann noted them at Camden, Ind., March 27, and April 13, 1885; also, a large flock at Burlington, Ind., April 23, 1885. Mr. William Brewster reported its wii) AG oo A. W. BUTLER. 51 occurrence in the mountains of western North Carolina in the summer of 1885 (The Auk, III., p. 107), and says: «Seen only on the Black Mountains, where it was numerous in small flocks throughout the balsam forests above 5000 feet. At Highlands, I was told that it regularly appeared in winter about the outskirts of the town.” Mr. Charles W. Rich- mond (The Auk, V., p. 22), gives, upon the authority of Mr. Hugh M. Smith, the information that an adult male Red Crossbill, accompanied by a young bird, was seen May 17, 1885, within the District of Columbia. Prof. L. L. Dyche reports the occurrence, in the winter of 1885-6, of the West- ern Red Crossbill (Loxza curvirostra stricklandi) at Law- rence, Emporia, Manhattan and Wakarusa, Kas. They were first observed Nov. 1, 1885, and were last seen Jan. 26, 1886 (The Auk, III., pp. 258-261). The following winter I was fortunate in securing, through the kindness of Mr. A. O. Gar- rett, a series of specimens of Loxza curvirostra minor from Lawrence, Kas. March 13 and 14, 1887, he obtained four, which he sent me; and later he sent me nine others which were taken March 24 and 25. The meeting of the range of the two forms is of considerable interest. Prof. B. W. Ever- mann reports a Crossbill, species not determined, from Bloomington, Ind., Feb. 23, 1886, and another March 8, 1886. The same authority states the late Mr. C. H. Boll- man found a few specimens of the Red Crossbill near Bloomington, Ind., July ro, 13, and 14, 1886. Mr. Arthur B. Chadbourne says, in the summer of 1886 it was found in the White Mountains, N. H. (The Auk, IV., p. 105). Mr. George B. Sennett, in the same volume, p. 242, gives an account of finding this species in the mountains on the bor- ders of North Carolina and Tennessee, in July and August, 1886. Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, in the same volume, pp. 287- 289, notes their abundance near Yemassee, S.C., in Novem- ber and December, 1886, and in January and February, 1887. He notes them again in the same vicinity, November 20, 1887 (The Auk, V., p. 115); also during January, 1888 52 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. (Zécd., p. 208). Mr. Frank M. Chapman also reports them from Aiken, S. C., Nov. 12, 1887 (/did., p. 324). Mr. G. G. Williamson observed them in Monroe County, Ind., Jan. 18 and Feb. 6, 1886. Mr. J. G. Parker reports them from Lake County, Ind., in May, 1887. In the fall of 1887, I again ob- served them at Brookville, Ind. They came to feed among the pines in my yard. Oct. 29, several were seen, and they last appeared Nov. 19. Prof. Walter Faxon and Dr. J. A. Allen give it as common in the White Mts., N. H., in July, 1874; June, 1885; and June, 1886 (The Auk, V., p. 152). Dr. Allen, on the next page of the same number of The Auk, speaks of a pair taken at Mandeville, La., March 27, 1888. Prof. B. W. Evermann found them in Vigo County, Ind., in the spring of 1888. They were first seen Feb. 6, and dis- appeared May 6. Mr.J. O. Snyder found them at Waterloo, Ind., March 13 and 17, 1888. Mr. H. N. McCoy informs me they were quite common in Wayne Co., Ind., in the early part of 1888. They were last seen April 5. Mr. G. G. Williamson saw six or eight individuals near Muncie, Ind., April 17, 1888 ; May 4, he saw three others. Mr. Otho C. Poling notes their occurrence in Adams County, Ill., but gives no account of their occurrence in summer (The Auk, VIL., p. 239). Mr. John A. Balmer informs me these Cross- bills were found in the vicinity of Vincennes, Ind., in the winter of 1888-9. Mr. J. F. Clearwater told me of the capt- ure of two in Putnam County, Ind., in the winter of 1888. A flock was seen by Mr. J. O. Snyder, at Waterloo, Ind., April 27, 1889. Mr. Stewart E. White informs me he found them common on Mackinac Island, Mich., Aug. 3 to Aug. 9, 1889. Mr. H. W. McBride writes me of taking three speci- mens at Waterloo, Ind., April21, 1890. Feb. 14, 1891, Mr. Stewart E. White saw six at Grand Rapids, Mich. He next noted the species March 16. He says it is quite rare in that vicinity. Mr. J. F. Clearwater gives me the following ac- count of their occurrence in Putnam County, Indiana: “On July 27, 1891, Jesse Earll was down beside the other mill- A. W. BUTLER. 63 J pond, where we collect all our water-birds, and noticed five birds on the ground, apparently probing in the mud with their bills. As they rose he shot one, which proved to be a male Red Crossbill in breeding plumage. He preserved the skin and still has it. The others were females or young, as he says none of them had any red on them.” Mr. Jonathan Dwight reports the American Crossbill on North Mountain, Penn., in June, 1891 (The Auk, IX,, p. 137). Dr. B. H. Warren, in his admirable “ Report on the Birds of Pennsylvania,” p. 228, gives it as breeding in the counties of Clinton, Clearfield, Luzerne, Lycoming, and Cameron, in that state. March 1, 1892, Messrs. A. B. Ulrey and E. M. Kindle report seeing six in Monroe County, Indiana. Mr. G. G. Williamson noted six near Muncie, Ind., April 16, 1892, and another April 24. Messrs. Charles D. and Lewis A. Test have kindly sent me the following interesting notes from observations of the spring of 1892, taken near Lafayette, Ind.: March 8, 1892, saw the first American Crossbill ; others were seen in the following dates: March 11; April 15, 19, S2vand 305 May 1, 3,:6, 3, 18; 20,,21,/27 and) 30) June 2,6: 22, 23,27 and 30. The birds were seen in pine trees and also in yards and along the road. Search was made for nests, but none were found. I am indebted to Mr. Otto Widmann for some valuable notes relating to the American Crossbill in Missouri in the winter of 1891-2, and the spring and summer of 1892. He says: “I never suspected these cone-loving nomads de- scended into a country so flat and uninteresting as St. Louis County, Mo., where nature never rears a cone without the help of the gardener. Thousands of young evergreens, especially Norway spruces, have been planted during the past decade, but old conifers are few and far between. There are on my place, besides a few Norway spruces, eighteen pine trees about thirty years old. Half of them are Austrian pines, the rest white and Scotch pines. Coniferous trees do 54 THE RANGE OF THE CROSS&ILLS. not bear fruit every year, but last winter the Austrian pines were full of cones, getting ready to drop the seeds in early spring. Besides the maturing pine seeds our section had another attraction for erratic fruit-eaters in the orchards. The apple trees had yielded an enormous crop and the de- mand not being sufficiently great to gather them in time, thousands of apples were still hanging on the trees when the Crossbills appeared on the scene. It was in the orchard that they made their début on Nov. 13, the day after the first blizzard had visited the upper Missouri valley. From this day on the Crossbills remained in the neighborhood until the end of the month, but none were here in December and Jan- uary—at least I did not notice any until they began to visit my pine trees in February. They were daily visitors all through March and until the 17th of April. From that day until May 8 none were seen, but from the 8th to the 14th they were again daily callers, After this date they were noticed twice, a party of six on June 5, and two birds, a male and a female, in one of my pines on July 21st. I looked for their nest in the tree, but unfortunately it was not there. I think now that I have met with the species on several occasion in former years, but did not know them. Frequenters of private gardens they were only seen when on wing or distant tree-top, and evaded identification. With us it is a shy and restless bird, easily alarmed, and flying a great distance. Before taking wing and while in the air they are quite noisy, with a note closely resembling the parent call of the Purple Martin (Progne sudis). But when feeding ina pine tree the whole troop keeps perfectly silent and nothing is heard but the noise made by breaking the cone-scales. When present in May they were also feeding in elms.” While sitting on the porch of a farmhouse in Putman Co., Ind., on the morning of July r1, 1892, I saw a Red Cross- bill alight on the top of a fir-tree in the yard and begin searching the cones for seeds. I watched it for about ten minutes and then, that there might be no possibility of mis- A. W. BUTLER. 55 take in the identification, I procured a gun and shot it. It proved to be a young male. On July 15 another young male, z.¢., a male presumably of the previous season, was secured from the same tree and left in confinement for several days, but was finally allowed its liberty. The un- usual date of their appearance caused me to take especial note of it. American Red Crossbills have, as has been shown, been noted in the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River in the following winters: 1868-9; 1869-70; 1874- 5; 1882-3; 1883-4; 1884-5; 1885-6; 1887-8; 1888-9; 1889-90; 1890-91; 1891-2. From 1882 to 1892, they were only absent one year (1886-7). In the winters of 1882-3, 1884-5, 1887-8, the area of dispersal was wide and the birds seem to have been generally distributed. Other years, as 1868-9, 1869-70, 1883-4, they appeared or at least were observed in but few localities; but where noted they were abundant. The results of inquiries concerning the summer range, particularly in the Ohio valley and the territory adjacent thereto, have been wholly unexpected. Summing up the occurrences in summer and the evidence of breeding, we note as follows: In the summer of 1869, they were abun- dant in the vicinity of Chicago, both in Illinois and Indiana. In the summer of 1878, they were found at Columbus, O., and abundantly at Cleveland, where they were reported to have bred. Dr. Wheaton refers to their having nested in Indiana as a fact well known to him. Dr. H. A. Atkins is said to have taken nests of this species near Locke, Mich., in 1880. The spring of 1885 they were common at Michigan City, Ind., and Mr. Byrkit thought they might have nested. In the summer of 1885 they were reported to have nested in Tippecanoe County, Ind. In the summer of the same year they were reported to have nested at Bloomington, Ind. They were reported from Monroe County, Ind., at three different dates in July, 1886. They were reported from Putman 56 THE RANGE OF THE CROSSBILLS. County, Ind., in the summer of 1891-2. They remained throughout a part of the summer of 1892 at Lafayette, Ind. They remained even later at Old Orchard, Mo., in 1892. These notes serve to bring more clearly to mind the pecu- liarly erratic character of the bird, of which we have known to some degree, before. The notes also seem to indicate that much of our lack of data is due to the scarcity of ob- serves in years past. A few years ago thecollection of data regarding almost any species of bird from Indiana, or, almost any other state, would have been an impossibility. It is not improbable, could we begin with the abundance of Crossbills at Cincinnati in 1868-9, with a number of intel- ligent observers equal to that available now, we could have a collection of observations covering its whole range between the Ohio River and the lakes, and perhaps including its movements for almost every year. These blank years do not necessarily signify that the bird was wanting in the territory studied, but that, for some one of a great many reasons, it was not observed. ‘The erratic distribution of the species applies as well to its summer range as to that in winter. It seems very probable that the species breeds to some extent throughout the Ohio valley. It is true that no specimens of either its nest or eggs have been, so far as I know, pre- served. Yet the evidence presented indicates that the breed- ing range of the species in the United States is not confined to the coniferous forests of the mountain ranges. Loxia leucoptera. White-winged Crossbill. This species is not so often met with in the Ohio valley. Its range lies farther northward. Its distribution within the United States is much less extensive, both in winter and summer, than is that of the Red Crossbill. Audubon mentions its breeding in Pennsylvania in summer, but this is probably an excep- tional case. Dr. J. M. Wheaton gives it in his Catalogue of Birds of Ohio in 1861. Mr. Charles Dury found them abun- dant in the vicinity of Cincinnati, O., in the winter of 1868-9, in company with the other species, in large flocks contain- A. W. BUTLER. 57 ing both species in proportion of two of the Red to one of the White-winged species. Mr.C. E. Aiken informs me that this species was in company with the Red Crossbill when they were so common in the vicinity of Chicago in the sum- mer of 1869. He also noticed them in Lake County, Ind., the later part of August of that year. He says they displayed the same habits as the preceding species. His recollection is that the White-winged was less abundant, a little later in arrival, and more wary. They remained through the winter Prof. A. J. Cook informs me that one was killed by Dr. H. A. Atkins at Locke, Mich., Aug. 9, 1875.