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Bird-Lore 



Warblers. — James P. Chapin, American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



A Strange Migration 



This locality is in eastern Iowa and about 

 65 miles north of the Missouri line. The 

 weather during the early part of January, 

 1922, had been what one might call 'fine 

 winter weather.' The temperature had been 

 oscillating between zero and 32 degrees 

 above. Up to the 18th there had been very 

 little snow in January, though earlier in 

 December we had both snow and lower tem- 

 perature. From the 12th to the 18th of 

 January there had been no snow at all and 

 the ground was bare. On the 18th, at 3 p.m., 

 a very fine snow began to fall. By 9 p m., the 

 ground was covered by about 2 inches of very 

 fine, light snow. Some of the snow adhered 

 to every limb, branch, and twig of all the trees, 

 bushes, and plants, converting the landscape 

 into fairyland. There was not a breath of air 

 moving. The night was perfectly still, the 

 temperature was 18° above, and the fine 

 snqwflakes continued to descend lazily to 

 earth. 



At 9 p.m. small voices, as by enchantment, 

 began to be heard at a distance toward the 

 northwest. Presently, they were overhead 

 and in every direction. Judging from the 

 volume and quality of the sound, the travel- 

 ers must have been a large concourse of small 

 birds. They were moving in a southeasterly 

 direction. For one and one-half hours I 

 heard their voices, many of them. I could 

 hear them as they were approaching, could 

 hear them overhead and for a considerable 

 distance after they were past. The flight of 

 birds was continuous though many more 

 were to be heard at some times than at others. 

 Many thousands of birds must have passed 

 this locality during that time. All the birds 

 seemed to belong to one species. Their note 

 is not unlike that of the Bluebird but higher 

 in pitch and varied occasionally by a little 

 trill. I have heard the same voices here 

 before but always in the air, at night, and 

 during migration time in spring and fall, but 

 never in the middle of winter! 



At 10.30 p.m. the wind began to sigh and 

 moan in the tree-tops and the flight of the 



birds ceased. Gradually the northwest wind 

 became more boisterous and the temperature 

 fell to 5 below zero during the night. Next 

 day was fair and cold. 



Now several questions arise at once in 

 regard to this peculiar and interesting phe 

 nomenon. What species of birds were these? 

 Where did they come from? Did they in- 

 tuitively know or feel the approach of the 

 cold wave or did the storm stir them up and 

 did they gain an hour and a half on the wind 

 by their more rapid flight. If, as would 

 seem, they are migratory birds, how can we 

 account for the fact that they did not move 

 South in December when the temperature 

 went to 7 degrees below zero and the ground 

 was also covered with snow. — E. D. Nauman, 

 Sigourney, Iowa. 



A Removable Floor for Bird-Houses 



In the past years that I have used home- 

 made bird houses, I have found that the 

 strongest argument in their disfavor is the 

 difficulty experienced in cleaning them out. 

 A number of house-nesting birds, including 

 the House Wren, which is, perhaps, the most 

 desirable of them all, will rarely occupy a 

 house a second time if the owner fails to clean 

 it out; but cleaning the house out often 

 means a great deal of labor. Usually, a tree 

 must be climbed, the house torn from it, and 

 after the ground is reached, it is often nec- 

 essary to tear a side from the house to get 

 at the contents. Such means will usually 

 permanently disfigure the bird-house and 

 the person has the choice of building a 

 new one or replacing the old in its battered 

 condition. 



In an effort to remedy this fault, a number 

 of good ideas have been put into practice, 

 and while most of them will serve their 

 purpose well, they frequently do not combine 

 simplicity in construction with strength, and 

 the results are disappointing. I have used a 

 good many types of bird-houses and have 

 tried the various schemes for cleaning them 

 with more or less success, but I have found 

 that they do not quite answer the require- 

 ments, and I was therefore prompted to 

 devise a removable floor, which is a little 

 different from any plan I have yet seen, and 



