14 THE ORNITIIOLOGICAL YEAR. , 
     
    
   
   
    
     eluded. The Great Horned Owl lays in lt‘elu'uary, other birds in 
     
     March and April; still, the height of the breeding season is not 
     
     reached until June 1. 
     
    

    
     Another period in the avian year closely connected with the spring 
     
     migration and nesting-little is the song season. Near New York city 
     
     it is inaugurated late in l“el)ruary by the Song Sparrow. Voice after 
     
     voice is added to the choir, and in June our woods and fields ring with 
     
     the chorus so dear to lovers of Nature. By the middle of Jilly it is on 
     
     the wane, and early in August it is tn‘actically over. Some birds have 
     
     a brief second song season in the fall, but as a rule it lasts only a few 
     
     days—it is a farewell to their summer lioines.* 
     
    

    
     August, is a. most discouraging month to the student of birds. 
     
     Birds leave their accustomed haunts and retire to secluded places to 
     
     renew their worn plninages. They are silent and inactive. and there- 
     
     fore difl‘ieult to find. Late in the month they reappear clad in travel- 
     
     ing costumes and ready for their southern journey. One by one they 
     
     leave us, and there are days late in August and early in September 
     
     when the woods are almost deserted 01' birds. Later the fall inig‘a— 
     
     tion becomes continuous. and each night brings a host of new arrivals. 
     
    

    
     The spring niig'ation is scarcely concluded before the fall migra- 
     
     tion begins. July 1, Tree Swallows. which rarely nest near New York 
     
     city, appear in numbers from the north and gather in immense flocks 
     
     in our marshes. Later in the month tllt‘_‘ are joined by Bobolinks. 
     
     Early in August the careful observer will detect occasional small 
     
     flights of Warblers passing southward. and by September 10 the 
     
     great southern march of the birds is well under way; it reaches its 
     
     height between the 20th and last of the month. when most of the win- 
     
     ter residents arrive, and from this time our bird-life rapidly decreases. 
     
     Some of the seed— and berry-eaters remain until driven southward by 
     
     the cold weather in December. When they have gone our bird popu- 
     
     lation is again reduced to the ever-present permanent residents and 
     
     hardy winter visitants. 
     
    

    
     The appended tables graphically illnst ‘ate the rise and fall of the 
     
     mig‘ations and of the nesting season. The first is based on my own 
     
     observations at l‘lnglcwood. N. J.. kindly revised and supplemented by 
     
     Mr. Eugene I’. Bit-knell from extended obser ‘ations at Riverdale, on 
     
     the opposite side of the Hudson liivcr. 
     
    

    
     The second was compiled from data accompanying the collections 
     
     of the American Museum of Nata ‘al Ilistory. 
     
    
   
   
    
     * See a series of papers by Mr. E. P. Biekncll entitled “ .\ Study of the Sing- 
     
     ing of our Birds.“ The, Auk, i, 1884, pp. 00—7], 1267140, 209-2118, 3122—3312; ii, 1885, 
     
     pp. 144454, 3194262.