44 THE MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



passage along the sides of the point, which finally 

 terminated in many cases in a flight directly out 

 across the open lake. I have observed this same 

 action on islands in the West Indies where there 

 were established lines of flight, or in continental 

 river valleys that were regular routes of travel for 

 many birds. 



Under proper conditions observations on noc- 

 turnal flights may be made without particular diffi- 

 culty. The sight of birds crossing the face of the 

 larger heavenly bodies has undoubtedly been fa- 

 miliar to astronomers since the days of Galileo and 

 the first telescopes, but seems to have come to the 

 notice of zoologists only in recent years. Tennant, 

 while studying the face of the sun at Roorkee in 

 1875, noted what he thought were kites soaring at a 

 great height.^ W. E. D. Scott, during casual inspec- 

 tion in an observatory at Princeton in October, 1880, 

 saw a considerable number of birds cross the moon 

 and was able even to identify a few of them. Addi- 

 tional notes were secured by Scott and J. A. Allen in 

 the spring of 188 1, and by F. M. Chapman in Sep- 

 tember, 1887, while observations were made in 

 greater detail by O. G. Libby in 1898,^ at Washburn 

 Observatory in the City of Madison, Wisconsin. 

 This author gives a record at considerable length of 

 studies made during the height of the autumn migra- 



"■ Stray Feathers^ iii, 1875, P- 4i9' ^ ^"^> ^^99j PP- H^-U^. 



