Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, 5. köideThe Club, 1880 |
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adult appears Audubon Baird bill Blue Grosbeak Bohemian Waxwing breast breeding Brewer Britain brown Bull Bulletin Cambridge canadensis capture Caspian Tern coast coll color common culmen Degland and Gerbe Dendroca Dresser Eastern Elbow Lake ELLIOTT COUES Empidonax Fauna feathers feet female Fish Crow flock FLYCATCHER flying fraterculus Gätke genus Gerbe Gray griseus Gurney habits Hand-book Harting Heligoland Helminthophaga Henshaw Hist Ibid inches J. A. ALLEN June killed Lake light Linn locality Long Island male Marsh Mass Merrill middle toe migration miles Museum nearly nests and eggs North American Birds Notes NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB observed occurrence Ornithology pair Philadelphia Vireo plumage recorded ROBERT RIDGWAY Royal Tern Santa Lucia season seen shot Sparrow species specimen spots summer resident tail taken tarsus Tern THRUSH tion trailli trees Vieill Vireo Vultur Warbler Wilson's wing winter Woodpecker Yarrell Zoöl
Popular passages
Page 151 - ... term an instinct. It will probably be found that every gradation still exists in various parts of the world, from a complete coincidence to a complete separation of the breeding and subsistence areas ; and when the natural history of a sufficient number of species...
Page 170 - CJ The Birds of Eastern North America. With Original Descriptions of all the Species which occur East of the Mississippi River between the Arctic Circle and the Gulf of Mexico, with Full Notes on their Habits, etc. Containing thirty-two plates drawn on stone by the author.
Page 151 - Let us suppose that in any species of migratory bird breeding can as a rule be only safely accomplished in a given area ; and further, that during a great part of the rest of the year sufficient food cannot be obtained in that area. It will follow that those birds which do not leave the feeding area at the proper season will suffer, and ultimately become extinct ; which will also be the fate of those which do not leave the feeding area at the proper time.
Page 103 - American Ornithology," published in 1840, to which he contributed a " Synopsis " of all the birds then known as North American ; (2.) a work entitled " North American Oology," devoted to an account of the geographical distribution of the birds of North America during the breeding season, and embracing figures and descriptions of their eggs ; and (3.), with Professor Spencer F.
Page 151 - Now, if we suppose that the two areas were (for some remote ancestor of the existing species) coincident, but by geological and climatic changes gradually diverged from each other, we can easily understand how the habit of incipient and partial migration at the proper seasons would at last become hereditary, and so fixed as to be what we term an instinct. It will probably be found that every gradation still exists in various parts of the world, from a complete coincidence to a complete separation...
Page 151 - It appears to me probable that here, as in so many other cases, '' survival of the fittest " will be found to have had a powerful influence. Let us suppose that in any species of migratory bird, breeding can as a rule be only safely accomplished in a given area ; and further, that during a great part of the rest of the year sufficient food cannot be obtained in that area. It will follow that those birds which do not leave the...
Page 61 - ... inches deep. On this foundation was the nest, a rather compact, bulky structure built mainly of fine grass with a little moss intermingled. Outside the grass is long and circularly disposed, while the bottom, inside, is composed of short broken pieces, and the inside rim of fine grass bent and loosely tangled together with considerable down among it. Measurements were not taken before removing the nest, but in its present condition the walls and base are two and a half inches thick, the diameter...
Page 5 - Brewster writes that its song is so nearly identical with the song of that species " that the most critical ear will, in many cases, find great difficulty in distinguishing between the two. The notes of philadelphicus are generally pitched a little higher in the scale, while many of the utterances are feebler and the whole strain is a trifle more disconnected. But these differences are of a very subtile character, and, like most comparative ones, they are not to be depended upon unless the two species...
Page 125 - Large flocks were seen in some districts in the same pitiable condition. A flock of from 33 to 35 American or whistling swans surprised the inhabitants of Plumer on Saturday forenoon by alighting in the waters of Cherry Run. One of the swans was almost immediately shot at and killed, and, to the surprise of the now large crowd of men and boys, the remainder of the flock, on account of the ice accumulating on their wings, was unable to fly, and a general rush was then made for the poor birds, and...
Page 108 - SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES UPON BIRDS OBSERVED IN NEW ENGLAND, WITH THE NAMES OF FIVE SPECIES NOT INCLUDED IN HIS PREVIOUS LISTS OF NEW ENGLAND BIRDS. BY TM BREWER.