20 BIRDS 



It has been said that river courses and mountain 

 ranges act as sign-posts for birds in migration. This 

 may be true of some water birds, but many other species 

 disregard all surface markings and fly across rivers, 

 lakes and mountain ranges. The Arctic Tern is the cham- 

 pion of all long-distance migratorial birds, as it nests 

 within a few degrees of the North Pole and, on its 

 southern journey each season, travels eleven thousand 

 miles to the border of the Antarctic Circle, making this 

 round trip of twenty-two thousand miles in twenty weeks. 

 The Golden Plover, nesting north of the Arctic Circle, 

 on its southern journey flies across the Atlantic Ocean 

 from Nova Scotia to South America, a distance of two 

 thousand five hundred miles, without a pause to feed 

 or to rest its tired wings. 



The most pessimistic individual becomes an opti- 

 mist when he looks from his window on a cold, bleak 

 March day and beholds on his front lawn the first spring 

 messengers of the season. A Robin or a Bluebird in 

 March suggests glorious sunshine, warm balmy air, 

 blooming tulips and grassy lawns. 



During the late fall and winter the Kingbird and 

 flycatchers, feeders on the moth and other flying insects, 

 must go far south, where delicate winged insects are 

 not killed by the cold. 



Seed and grain eating birds may and do remain many 

 degrees farther north, and many do not migrate at all; 

 for instance, the Quail, Wild Turkey and Downy Wood- 

 pecker. 



Birds of prey, or those depending on capturing liv- 

 ing things, as mice and other birds, are governed wholly 

 by their food supply. With their ability to cover a large 

 scope of territory while hunting, they manage to pick 

 up a meagre food supply the year round in almost any 

 locality. 



The southern migration cannot be for food-seeking 

 reasons alone. You have only to watch the congregating 

 of the Redwinged Blackbirds or of the Grackles in Oc- 

 tober to appreciate the unity of purpose existing in all 

 migrants of any species as the time approaches for their 

 journey to the South. 



