118 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Most or all birds of extended migration find, on their way or at their south- 

 ern limit, species closely allied to them which are not migrants. 



The migratory birds which find the great lakes in their track, probably mass 

 together at the narrower parts and cross there, as the birds of Europe do in 

 crossing the Mediterranean. 



Few or no migratory birds nest at the southern limit of their migration. 



The home of a species of birds is usually supposed to be where it nests and 

 raises its young, the journey to the south being considered merely an accident 

 or incident of bird life. 



The birds of Michigan may be divided from their migratory habits into four 

 groups: first, those birds which nest here, and remain here winter and sum- 

 mer; second, those which nest here and spend the summer here, but retreat 

 to the south to spend the winter; third, those birds which nest to the north 

 of us and winter to the south, being only seen here for a short time in the 

 spring and fall, during their migration; and fourth, those birds which nest 

 to the north of us and pass the summer there, but are driven down to our 

 latitude by the winter. 



In the first group (see list A, which follows this paper), those birds which 

 are constant residents of the lower peninsula, I find a list of thirty-three, 

 twenty-seven of which certainly belong here, and six are doubtfully put in the 

 list until further observation shall determine their place. Here are found 

 the nuthatches and titmice, four or five finches, five woodpeckers, six owls, 

 three hawks, and six game birds. The nuthatches and titmice are worthy of 

 special mention from the quality of their food. They gather together during 

 the winter in small flocks, as if to encourage each other against the inclemency 

 of the weather and dreariness of the landscape — several species frequently feed- 

 ing amicably together. They are abroad in all weathers, searching the trunks 

 and branches of the trees over and over for the insects and larves and eggs 

 that may be concealed in the crevices and under the bark. Being too small to 

 furnish a bite for the pot-hunters, they neither fear nor love man's presence, but 

 in their wanderings in search of food are found in about equal numbers in the 

 cities and in the deepest woods. The cedar birds and the finches also gather into 

 flocks in winter, and give their mite of noise and motion to the lifeless world; 

 but the nature of their food cuts them off from our deepest sympathies. The 

 sedentary woodpeckers are as solitary in winter as in summer; but with their 

 prying ways they must be of great value, especially the downy and hairy 

 species, which are free to enter the orchards and yards, and even the towns in 

 their search for food. AH the six species of owls nesting here are sedentary. 

 They are, most or all of them, fain to stay their stomachs during the sum- 

 mer, on grasshoppers and beetles, when no more noble game offers; but if 

 they have any appreciable value to the agriculturist it is as mousers rather than 

 as insect eaters. Our game birds are all sedentary, unless we class the wild 

 pigeon among them. The lower peninsula is probably the extreme limit 

 toward the north, of the wild turkey and Virginia quail (I am not sure that 

 they reach so far), while the prairie hen only enters the southern counties, 

 never penetrating, as I can find, to the central part of the State. On the 

 other hand the spruce partridge, which is never seen in the southern counties, 

 is found in the northern third of the lower peninsula. The upper penin- 

 sula may be found to contain, with this, one or more arctic forms. 



The second group of birds (see list B), those nesting in our State and pass- 

 ing the summer here, but retreating to the south in winter, contains the great 

 mass of the birds with which we are most familiar. Our songsters are found 



