78 THE MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



ing the first week in July, hardly more than a month 

 after the last of their kind were recorded in north- 

 ward flight. The yellow warbler completes its breed- 

 ing and starts south during the latter part of this 

 month. Other wood warblers begin to travel in 

 August, and in mid-September pass in abundance, 

 with vireos, flycatchers, and similar tree-haunting 

 birds. October, particularly in the Middle West, is 

 preeminently the month of migrant sparrows, which 

 form a wave of migration equalled only by the gath- 

 erings of wild ducks on some of the northern 

 marshes. In eastern Kansas near the tenth of Oc- 

 tober I have found sparrows in mixed bands con- 

 taining thousands of individuals, scattered through 

 hedges, marshes, and weed patches. On such occa- 

 sions I have in the course of a day recorded five 

 hundred or more LeConte's sparrows, with many 

 hundreds of song, Lincoln, white-crowned, and 

 Harris sparrows, and juncos, and smaller numbers of 

 more unusual species. From the close of this month 

 the number of migrants steadily decreases, until the 

 flood of movement is almost stilled by the arrival of 

 winter. Irruptions of northern species, as pine and 

 evening grosbeaks, redpolls, siskins, snow buntings, 

 and longspurs, may continue, however, until the 

 opening of spring. 



There is cessation of migration in fact only during 

 the period of nesting, and even at that time there 



