Annual report ..[bulletins and circulars] . forth in full flight, is so long and intricate thatone finds himself holding his breath as the burst of melody con-tinues, as if to help the little fellow catch up with his music. Along the banks of some lake or stream, sitting idly on atelegraph pole or wire, rising and settling, elevating and depress-ing his long parted top-knot, a patriarchal old kingfisher maybe seen silently awaiting the gleam ofa shiner in the water below (). Or perhaps you may first seehim flying like a big woodpecker,screaming his chattering cry highin the air, or scali
Annual report ..[bulletins and circulars] . forth in full flight, is so long and intricate thatone finds himself holding his breath as the burst of melody con-tinues, as if to help the little fellow catch up with his music. Along the banks of some lake or stream, sitting idly on atelegraph pole or wire, rising and settling, elevating and depress-ing his long parted top-knot, a patriarchal old kingfisher maybe seen silently awaiting the gleam ofa shiner in the water below (). Or perhaps you may first seehim flying like a big woodpecker,screaming his chattering cry highin the air, or scaling periouslyclose to the water under the fring-ing hemlock branches that over-hang the stream. His large size,slate-blue back, loud notes andcharacteristic flight make him ahard bird to mistake in any case. >k * * There are many other birds which pass us on their waynorth, but they rather herald the summer than the breaking ofspring. The following list of spring migrations is taken fromMr. Chapmans Handbook of the Birds of Eastern North. 76. —Kingfishef. Ill America, and was compiled for use about New York City. Thedates nearly coincide with those I have found about the centralpart of the state, and are, in the main, only a few days inadvance of those for the northern countries. The latter dates inthe column are about what may be taken for the middle tier ofcounties. It is the earnest hope of the writer that these few verybrief sketches may be of use to those interested in enteringthe delightful field of the study of birds; your experiencemay and probably will be different from that which I havecited, which only goes to show that everyone must really see forhimself, and not only that, but by so doing may make newobservations and get new ideas on practically all of even our bestknown birds. Birds are not, as a rule, hard to watch, and thepatience it requires to sit still and be a stump long enoughfor birds to cease noticing you is soon and amply repaid by thenew insight int
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