INTRODUCTION. 29 



know that hawks, swallows, and some other day-migrants seem reluctant 

 to venture out onto sea or lake, and prefer to "coast alongshore" in the direc- 

 tion which takes them most nearly where they wish to go ; but this may very 

 likely result from the fact that these birds must feed more or less as they 

 travel, and it demands no extraordinary intelligence to foresee the scarcity 

 of food if they pass out over the sea or any large body of water. Just how 

 far birds follow "blind instinct" (whatever that may be) in these trips and 

 how far they act as intelligent beings is a moot question at present. One 

 might suppose, after studying the map of the Great Lake region, that birds 

 passing northward from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan would endeavor 

 to cross into the Upper Peninsula at or near the Straits of Mackinac, but so 

 far as we can learn birds are no more numerous during migration at that point 

 than any other, and the fact that thousands of birds are killed annually at 

 Spectacle Reef Light at the head of Lake Huron, quite a ch stance east of the 

 Straits, would seem to show that the migrants — at least at night — take a 

 direct north and south course without regard to the amount of land or water 

 to be crossed. 



SOME USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 



(A) Large works to be found in most libraries. 



L Baird, Brewer & Ridgwav. History of North American Birds. 

 Land Birds, Vols. 1, 2^^ 3. Water Birds, Vols. 1, 2. Little, 

 Brown & Co. 



2. Robert Riclgway. Birds of North and Middle America. Bull. 



50, U. S. National Museum, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4 (5 in press). No 

 life histories. 



3. Elliott Coues. Key to North American Birds, 2 vols. Dana 



Estes & Co., Boston, 1905, 5th ed. ($10.00). 



4. Capt. Chas. Bendire. Life Histories of North American Birds, 



2 vols. : Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 28, 

 1892, and Vol. 32, 1895. Land Birds from Raptores to Icter- 

 idfB, with many fine colored plates of eggs. 



5. Henry Nehrling. Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty. 2 



large vols., 36 colored plates. Geo. Brumder, Milwaukee, 

 1893. 



6. Howard Elon Eaton. Birds of New York. Memoir 12, N. Y. 



State Museum, Vol. 1, 1909 (Vol. 2 in press). About 50 

 colored plates in Vol. 1. 



(B) Smaller works, some of which every bird student should own. 



7. Robert Ridgway. Key to North American Birds. J. B. Lippin- 



cott, 1 vol. 



8. Frank M. Chapman. Handbook of Birds of Eastern North 



America. Sixth (or later) edition, 1904. D. Appleton & 

 Co., New York, $3.00. 



9. Frank M. Chapman. Warblers of North America. D. Appleton 



& Co., With 24 colored plates. $3.00 net. 



10. Frank M. Chapman. Bird Life. D. Appleton & Co., 1903, 



75 colored plates. (Popular edition $2.00.) 



11. Frank M. Chapman. Bird studies with a Camera. D. Apple- 



ton & Co., 1903. No colors. $1.75. 



12. Ralph Hoffman. Guide to the birds of New England and Eastern 



New York. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904. $2.00. 



