A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri

ring and fall months. V. THE CL1MVTE. The climate of Missouri, continental as ;t is in a high degree, is one of great variations. Generally speaking it may be said that it is characterized by hot summers and moderately cold winters, with exceptions of moderately hot summers and very cold winters. Maximum temperatures of eighty degrees and over occur during the summer on eighty to ninety days; ninety degrees and over on twenty to thirtv days. In ordinary winters the temperature reaches to and below the freezing point on about eighty days and falls below zero on trom ten to twenty days. There are on record a few exceptionally moderate winters like that of 1905-'06 when the zero mark was hardly reached, or reached only in the more northern counties. There is little difference in the amount and duration of the summer's heat in the different parts of the state, but there is a difference of five degrees in the average winter temperature between the northwest and the center, and from ten to fifteen degrees between that of the northwest and the southeast. All waves, cold and warm, appear first in the northwest and advance southeastward, requiring about twenty- four hours to reach the southeastern corner of the state. The most pronounced polar waves of midwinter are nearly as cold in one part of the state as in the other, but cold periods are generally of shorter duration in the southeast, moderating more rapidly under the more southern sun and the lower elevation. This is...