OUR GREATEST TRAVELERS 



183 



Rico, and only 6 of these continue to the 

 South American coast, and these last in 

 such diminished numbers as to form an 

 insignificant fraction of the winter visit- 

 ants in that region. 



The explanation, of course, lies in the 

 question of food. The combined area of 

 all the West India islands east of Porto 

 Rico is so small that it could not furnish 

 subsistence for even one per cent of the 

 myriads of birds which throng the main 

 migration route across the Gulf. 



To the westward the short route, No. 

 5, stretches a few hundred miles from 

 the coast of Texas to northern Vera 

 Cruz. It is adopted by a few Kentucky 

 warblers, worm-eating warblers, golden- 

 wing warblers, and some others, who 

 seek in this way to avoid a slow journey 

 by land across a region scantily supplied 

 with moist woodlands. 



Still farther west, routes 6 and 7 rep- 

 resent the land journeys of those birds 

 from the western United States who 

 winter in Mexico and Central America. 

 Their trips are comparatively short ; most 

 of them are content to stop when they 

 have reached the middle districts of 

 Mexico, and only a few pass east of the 

 southern part of that country. 



Route No. I remains to be noticed. It 

 extends in an approximately north-and- 

 south line from Nova Scotia to the 

 Lesser Antilles and the northern coast 

 of South America. Though more than 

 a thousand miles shorter than the main 

 migration route, it is not employed by 

 any land bird. But it is a* favorite fall 

 route for thousands of water birds, and 

 as such will be referred to again more in 

 detail. 



It must not be considered that these 

 routes as outlined on the map repre- 

 sent distinctly segregated pathways with 

 clearly defined borders. On the contrary, 

 they are merely convenient subdivisions 

 of the one great flightway which extends 

 from North to South America. There is 

 probably no single mile in the whole line 

 iDetween northern Mexico and the Lesser 

 Antilles which is not crossed each fall by 

 nn'grating birds. What is meant is that 

 the great bulk of the birds, both as to 

 species and nuinl)cr of individuals, cross 



MIGRATION ROUTE OF THE BLACK-POLL 

 WARBLERS THAT NEST IN ALASKA 



This bird winters in South America along- 

 side the cliff swallows, but in summer seems to 

 try and get as far as possible from its winter 

 neighbor. Note how its northward route di- 

 verges from the northward flight of the cliff 

 swallow, shown on the map on page 185. It 

 travels at night, often flying several hundred 

 miles in the darkness (see pages 184 and 193). 



the Gulf to eastern ^Mexico, while to the 

 eastward their numbers steadily diminish. 



LIGHT-HOUSES LURE THOUSANDS OF BIRDS 

 TO DESTRUCTION 



It is not to be supposed that these long 

 llights over the waters can occur without 

 many casualties, and not the smallest of 

 the perils arises from the beacons which 

 man has erected along the coast to insure 

 his own safety. "Last night I could have 

 filled a mail-sack with the bodies of little 

 warblers which killed themselves strik- 

 ing against my light,'' wrote the keeper 

 of Fowey Rocks light-house, in southern 

 Florida. 



Nor was this an unusual tragedy, 

 lucry spring the lights along the coast 

 lure to (lestruction myriads of birds that 

 are en route from their winter homes in 

 the South til their summer nesting places 



