36 The Ottawa Naturalist. | May 



Mexico. That there are many exceptions to this is evident. 

 Thus, some Alaska birds, instead of joining the western or middle 

 contingent, seem to travel to the east, as the Blackpoll Warbler ; 

 and the Bobolink, which has advanced from its eastern habitat as 

 far west as Utah, has been shown to travel back east in migration, 

 over the way its species originally extended its range westward, 

 instead of going the shorter way by land into Mexico ; thus adher- 

 ing to family traditions. The same is done by the Wheatear, a 

 European species, having come by way of Iceland and Greenland 

 to Labrador, now breeding there. That migrates back to Europe 

 over the same route the species has come. Now, how do those 

 that want to go further south proceed from the Gulf coast? Not 

 as we might suppose via the Greater and Lesser Antilles to South 

 America, that being to our mind the easiest route ; they would 

 always be in sight of land, near food, etc. Of about 25 species 

 which make a start over this route, only about six finish it to the 

 South American main. Nor do a great many take another 

 apparently easy route, i.e. from southern Florida to Cuba, on that 

 island to its western point and then by a short flight of about 100 

 miles to Yucatan. No, one main route is from Florida to Cuba, 

 thence to Jamaica, at both of which many species remain, and 

 thence by a 500 mile flight over the Carribean Sea to South 

 America. Another route is from northwestern Florida straight 

 south to South or Central America or Yucatan. Another from 

 Louisiana south and south-west to Mexico. These routes also 

 seem to show that the birds cannot, as a rule, be greatly exhausted 

 by long flights, otherwise they would dread them and rather make 

 use of all the islands they could and travel from Louisana, or at 

 least from Texas by land into Mexico, which most birds scorn to 

 do, thereby not even cutting off much distance or time. It has 

 also been discovered by these late investigations, that some species 

 coming north from Mexico, etc., do not alight as soon as they have 

 land under them, but rather fly many miles inland before doing so. 

 An interesting question in connection with migration always 

 has been, " How do flic birds find their "way ? " It has been held 

 that the configuration of the land below, the physical features of 

 it, play an important role in this. That this can be true only to a 

 slight extent, we can at once see, when we bear in mind tha 



