Notes on Rhode Island Ornithology, Vol 1 Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Notes on Rhode Island Ornithology, Vol. 1

To turn to the portion of the work of interest to the ornithologist we find the casual mention of the commoner birds from time to time and a few pages entirely devoted to birds, under the title of 'The Bird Excursion,' or a supposed walk in the neighborhood of Newport, on May 29, 1658. These particular pages mention some thirty-two birds, all well known inhabitants of Rhode Island, and the recording of them must be looked upon only as of the year 1899, and not of the last half of the seventeenth century.

To the Editor of Notes on Rhode Island Ornithology: -

All my notes about the fall shooting with dates etc. are at Sakonnet, so I cannot be very exact in details.

I have never known so poor a flight of the various shore birds as occurred this past summer and fall in Rhode Island, at least so far as my observations go.

The locality is not a good one for shore bird shooting. The marsh there does not lay well in the line of flight, and a large percentage of the birds go by off-shore. It is also overrun most of the time by crabbers and that curse and nuisance to all decent sportsmen, the "Peep Shooter."

To illustrate this off-shore flight, I was a witness some years ago of a very interesting sight. It was about the third week in August, and had rained heavily in the night with some wind from the southeast. At daylight it was quite foggy and the wind died out almost to a calm. Flock after flock of the large Yellow Legs (Totanus melanoleucus) came in from over the sea, made the land near West Island, flew east about a mile, and went off to sea again. This continued until about 11 A. M.; then the weather cleared, and I saw no more of them; they flew high and none were killed. There were more birds in that morning flight than I have ever seen in this locality all put together.

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