120 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A. A. Allen (1934) and Lincoln (1935) state that the thrushes 

 migrate at night because light is less intense, they can then better 

 avoid their enemies, and they can take care of feeding during the 

 daytime. 



Fall migration, then, can be described as irregular since some birds 

 are found in the United States (Florida) every month of the year, but 

 most have left the country by the end of October. 



A study of migration records leads me to conclude that there is no 

 definite route of migration either in spring or fall. This is contrary 

 to the statement that thrushes prefer the Mississippi Valley flyway. 



Winter. — Most wood thrushes have left the United States by the 

 end of October, but there are a few records for November some of 

 which are quite far north: New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, 

 and Pennsylvania. The scarcity of records, however, would indicate 

 that these are stragglers and that by November most of the birds 

 have left the United States. The United States Fish and Wildlife 

 Service had but a dozen records for November at the time this study 

 was made, and of those, four were from places south of the United 

 States: One for Nicaragua, two for Costa Rica, and one for Panama. 

 In December there are records from New Jersey, South Carolina, 

 Alabama, and Florida, in the United States, and two for places south 

 of our country, one from Costa Rica and one from Barro Colorado 

 Island, Panama. The January records are from Georgia, Florida, and 

 Mexico, only one record in each case. These were the only records 

 in the files for that month. The February records consist of four 

 from Florida, with others from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and 

 Costa Rica. 



Roberts (1932) summarizes, saying: "Winters in southern Mexico 

 and Central America and occasionally in Florida. Casual in migration 

 in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Jamaica; accidental in Colorado and 

 Bermuda." 



Id checking the Christmas bird-census records in Bird-Lore, I found 

 two records of observations of the wood thrush. At Cape May, N. J., 

 1934, one was seen by McDonald and others. Another record was 

 from Paris, Tenn., where three were seen in 1933. 



Howell (1932) lists four records of wintering individuals in Florida. 



O. Salvin (1888), in writing of the birds of the islands off the coast 

 of Yucatan, says: "A migratory species from the north, and common 

 in Cozumel Island. It has not been noticed in Northern Yucatan, 

 but it occurs in Cuba, though rarely. It is abundant in the winter 

 months in Southern Mexico and Eastern Guatemala, the southern 

 limit of its range being Northern Honduras." 



Alexander F. Skutch, an American ornithologist in Costa Rica, 

 writes me that he observed a wood thrush on Barro Colorado Island, 



