route" is not popular with the greater number of migrants, and 

 although many individuals traverse it, they are only a small frac- 

 tion of the multitudes of North American birds that spend the winter 

 in South America. 



Formerly it was thought that most of the North American land 

 birds that migrate to Central America made a leisurely trip along the 

 Florida coast, crossed to Cuba, and thence made the short flight from 

 the western tip of Cuba to Yucatan. A glance at the map would sug- 

 gest this as a most natural route, but as a matter of fact it is practically 

 deserted except for a few swallows and shorebirds, or an occasional 

 land bird storm-driven from its accustomed course. What actually 

 happens is that in the fall many of the birds that breed east of the 

 Allegheny Mountains travel parallel to the seacoast in a more or less 

 southwesterly direction and, apparently maintaining this same gen- 

 eral course from northwestern Florida, cross the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 coastal regions of eastern Mexico. 



The routes used by the Atlantic brant merit some detail for the reason 

 that these were long misunderstood. These birds winter on the At- 

 lantic coast, chiefly at Barnegat Bay, N. J., but (depending upon the 

 severity of the season and the food available) south also to North Caro- 

 lina. Their breeding grounds are in the Canadian arctic archipelago 

 and on the coasts of Greenland. According to the careful studies of 

 Lewis (1937), the main body travels northward in spring along the 

 coast to the Bay of Fundy, hence overland to Northumberland Strait, 

 which separates Prince Edward Island from the mainland of New 

 Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A minor route appears to lead northward 

 from Long Island Sound by way of such valleys as those of the Housa- 

 tonic and Connecticut Rivers, and on across southern Quebec to the 

 St. Lawrence River. 



After spending the entire month of May feeding and resting in 

 various parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the eastern segment of the 

 brant population suddenly resumes its journey by crossing to the north 

 shore of the St. Lawrence estuary. The Bay of Seven Islands, in this 

 general region, is the point of departure for long overland flights that 

 are made by the two segments of the population. The eastern and 

 larger of these appears to fly almost due north to Ungava Bay and 

 from there to nesting grounds, probably in Baffin Island and Green- 

 land. The smaller segment travels a route that is but slightly north 

 of west to the southeastern shores of James Bay, although somewhere 



57 



