Birds and Seasons 25 BIRDS OF THE SEASON Permanent residents and winter visitants (see Bird-Lore, Dec, 1900, p. 185.) February Mi^ranfs. — Purple Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Bluebird, Robin, Flicker. March Migrants. — March 1-20, Canada Goose, Woodcock, Snipe, Phoebe, Meadow- lark, Cowbird, Fox Sparrow; 20-31, Kingfisher, Mourning Dove, Yellow-bellied Sap- sucker,* Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow,* Martin,* Tree Swallow. FEBRUARY AND MARCH BIRD-LIFE AT OBERLIN. OHIO Bv LvNDS Jones The weather of February is only less variable than March. We have learned to expect our most severe weather during the first ten days of the month, when the temperature frequently drops considerably below zero. Snow is an almost invariable accompaniment of this week or more of cold, but its depth is very rarely as much as a foot. During this time the resident Hawks may be entirely absent, but they return with a change to warmer and are not again driven away. It is then that we expect to find the Snowflake and Rough -legged Hawk. So seldom that it is hardly fair to count, the rarer birds of prey and the Pine Grosbeak and White -winged Crossbill may be driven into the country. Either a little after the middle or during the closing week of the month the weather becomes so much like spring that the snow almost disappears and the first migrants arrive. These first ones are almost always rein- forcements to the small company of permanent resident species, as the Song Sparrows, Flickers and Hawks. At this first touch of spring the Prairie Horned Larks and the two small Woodpeckers and White - breastcti Nuthatch begin to mate. March is a winter-summer sandwich, bringing the first waves of the great migration. It is not until March that Crows and Meadowlarks can be depended upon for the daily horizon. The last week in March is not seldom a red-letter week for the bird lover, for then the birds come up from the south in a great host, bringing many which should linger for at least ten days longer. I have recorded the VVHiite- throated Sparrow, I'"ic-Id Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Purple Martin, iiarn Swallow and Hroun I'iirasher iluring this week. 1 o be sure, one must look in xv most sheltered places for these less hardy birds, but there tlu are, on the sunn hillside or in the shelterctl nook in the woods. 'l"he' are but forerimners of their host and hardly count in the final summing up, except as such. 'et a meeting with a bird out of season is the electric shock which spurs the field stuilent on to greater effort. 'Occasional.
