38 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



No, they can fly that fast and faster in an hour and probably do 

 that at times, especially when crossing large bodies of water. It 

 simply means that by either one long or several short flights 

 interrupted by leisurely feeding in between, they proceed so far in 

 a day. They take it very easy during the first days or weeks of 

 their journey, accelerating the speed towards the end. That the 

 relative position of the masses of birds, also those of one species, 

 breeding at the various latitudes, is much changed and shifted, 

 owing to difference in speed, can easily be imagined, also that the 

 migrants of a southerly species may be overtaken and passed by 

 more northerly ones. Thus the southern form of Maryland 

 Yellowthoat is passed and left behind by its more northerly 

 congeners. 



That many casualties may occur during migration, that dis- 

 aster overtakes single birds as well as whole flights, is not to be 

 wondered at. When the air is heavy and full of fog the birds fly 

 very low and then strike high objects, steeples and especially 

 lighthouses. Prof. W. W. Cooke notes that one morning in May 

 150 dead birds were picked up at the foot of Washington Monu- 

 ment, 555 feet high. When the light on the Statue of Liberty in 

 New York harbor was still burning, 700 dead birds a month was 

 the usual crop of fatalities during migration, as reported by Chap- 

 man. Some time ago an item of news was making the round of 

 the papers, that on two mornings during the last fall migration 

 6,000 birds had been killed against a lighthouse on the north 

 coast of France Even if there were only 600 it was bad enough. 

 Or when birds flying northward, say over the Gulf of Mexico or 

 Lake Erie, are met by a fierce gale from the north, that then 

 hundreds, if not thousands are occasionally hurled into a watery 

 grave, can well be understood, especially of the weaker-winged 

 species. That some of the hawks reap a rich harvest during mi- 

 gration, especially the little Sharpshinned, Cooper's, Duck and 

 Goshawk is also clear. 



Now, as to some anomalies and curiosities of migration. 

 Some of our hardy Canadian birds perform, instead of a migration 

 in the accepted sense, a series of apparently aimless, eccentric rov- 

 ings and wanderings, not only southward, but in various direc- 

 tions and without all regularity. Thus the Pine Grosbeak and 



