126 THE MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



were juncos, tree sparrows, white-throated sparrows, 

 swamp sparrows, winter wrens, and golden-crowned 

 kinglets, with scattering rusty grackles, saw-whet 

 owls, brown creepers, hermit thrushes, and miscel- 

 laneous warblers, vireos, finches, and others. Their 

 total number was not computed, but must have 

 been tremendous. 



Of maximum extent for one species are the catas- 

 trophes that have beset migrant Lapland longspurs 

 in the Middle West on their northern flights in very 

 early spring. In the plains regions this species con- 

 gregates in enormous numbers where food is obtain- 

 able. I have seen more than one hundred thousand 

 gathered in a single field, to feed on various weed 

 seeds. In their northward flight on occasion these 

 birds have encountered blinding storms of wet, 

 clinging snow, which at night bewildered the travel- 

 lers until they flew into various obstructions, or sank 

 to the ground and there perished. In such a catas- 

 trophe in Minnesota, in March, 1907, Dr. T. S. 

 Roberts has estimated that 750,000 of these birds 

 lay dead on the ice of two lakes, each a mile in ex- 

 tent. The area where dead birds were reported in 

 greater or less abundance on this occasion covered 

 over 1,500 square miles. It is astonishing to note 

 that in the second winter following I found long- 

 spurs on the prairies of eastern Kansas in even 

 greater numbers than usual. Similar catastrophes 



