Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/196

184 have been frequently told that a wren is never seen before the 1st of May, and usually upon that day they are here in full force. Now, let any one be determined to watch day and night for the first birds of the season; let him wander all day in or about tangled thickets, and sheltered, sunny hill-sides; let him, with sleepless eye, scrutinize every haunt of the birds, and with vigilant ear listen to every faint chirp and far-off twitter, and follow up every undetermined bird-note; let him do this, year after year, from April 1st to 30th, and he will find his note-books teeming with records of "early" birds, that will come and go, all unsuspected by the mid-day observer, who often will insist upon the absence altogether of many a summer songster, that, skulking about, withholds its joyous songs until the woods have welcomed the full company of its kind, that of old have made merry in its shady nooks. The fact is, there is more to be learned about birds, in one hour of the early morning, than in six weeks of mid-day sunshine.

The amount of variation in the dates of arrival of all of our spring birds is really considerable, and in the whole list of migratory inland birds that annually visit New Jersey, either to remain throughout the summer, or are on their way to more northern localities, there is not one that can be considered regular in the time of reaching here, by from twenty to thirty days.

The amount of variation in the dates of arrival, year after year, of the same species, say of the brown thrush, cat-bird, or yellow-breasted chat, is less, however, than that of the time of arrival of allied species; for instance, the various species of thrushes reach us very irregularly. The robin (Turdus migratorius) is a resident species; the wood-thrush appears (one or two in a neighborhood) from April 15th to May 10th; the tawny thrush (Turdus fuscescens) sometimes later by two weeks, and sometimes absent altogether; the olive-back thrush (Turdus Swainsoni) passes by irregularly, as to both time and seasons, and so, too, with the hermit thrush (Turdus Pallasi), which, however, occasionally remains throughout the summer. The brown thrush, or "thrasher" (Harporhynchus rufus) comes to us by twos and threes as early as April 20th (the first recorded by me this season, 1874, was April 17th), and not until May 3d to the 12th can they be considered as present in full force. The mocking-bird (Mimus polyglottis) is irregular, both as to years and dates, and the cat-bird (Galeoscoptes Carolinensis), never missing a year, wants the early May foliage developed, that he may skulk therein, yet often in "single blessedness," comes to his last year's haunts, and is wonderfully ingenious in his efforts to conceal himself in the leafless thickets of early April, keeping ever close to the ground, and never venturing upon the slightest attempt at a song.

The many notes we have made with reference to the warblers (Sylvicolidæ) also indicate a great degree of irregularity and uncertainty in their migratory movements. This applies to these birds as