EASTERN PAINTED BUNTING 139 



typical. At Baton Rouge, some 90 miles north of New Orleans, it 

 has been noted as arriving in late April, the 22nd to the 28th. 



George C Williams (MS.), in detailed notes from Texas, states 

 that the arrival in Rockport varies from April 9-27. Dates are later 

 at Houston, as might be expected since it is inland, and range from 

 AprU 22-27. At Harlingen, in the Brownsville area, the arrival 

 has been noted as April 24, which seems strange, although in a series 

 of years it corresponds with more northern areas. 



Retiu"ning now to the east and the South Atlantic region, Frederick 

 V. Hebard (MS.) reports arrival in southeastern Georgia (Refuge) 

 from April 16 at the earliest to April 24. He states that the salt water 

 line of the Great Satilla River lies just below Refuge. Eugene E. 

 Murphey (1937) gives arrival dates for Augusta on the Savannah 

 River as April 25-28. 



At Charleston, S.C. the nonpareil arrives about mid-April. I 

 usually do not look for it untU the 16th, and it has arrived many times 

 on that date. Wayne's (1910) earliest was April 9, but he did not 

 see it in some years untU April 23. The males arrive first, and are 

 followed by the females a week to 10 days later. The earliest record 

 for South Carolina was established by E. S. Weyl and J. M. Coombs, 

 Jr., of Philadelphia, on Mar. 21, 1939, which is considerably earlier 

 than the earliest observation made by resident ornithologists. 



The nonpareil goes on into North Carolina as far as Beaufort, 

 confining itself, as it does everywhere in the South Atlantic area, to 

 the coast region. Pearson and the Brimleys (1942) state that it is 

 present there from April 15, the exact time it usually arrives in 

 the Charleston area, some 200 miles south. No other arrival dates 

 have been given for North Carolina. 



Any critical examination of the nonpareil's spring migration cannot 

 fail to impress the student with the peculiar hiatus between the 

 Apalachicola and Mississippi rivers of the Gulf Coast (Florida to 

 Louisiana) . In this area the bird is rare and unrecorded in some years. 

 East and west of it, the bird is common. 



Perhaps George G. WUliams' theory of spring migration around 

 the Gulf of Mexico would explain, or at least help to explain, the 

 comparative absence of the bird in that area. Williams' (1945) theory 

 counters the long-held idea that all birds cross the Gulf, suggesting 

 that many of them, if not most, travel around it, both east and west. 

 To visualize this revolutionary thought, let us suppose that the spring 

 route follows the shape of the symmetrical sweeping curve outlined 

 by a cow's horns. Starting at the forehead (Yucatan), one horn 

 curves around the east Mexican coast and sweeps fii'st west, then 

 north and east along Texas and Lovusiana to, say, Pascagoula, Miss. 

 The other turns eastward out toward and just short of Cuba, crosses 



