THE OOLOGIST. 



151 



Geese principally move in the day 

 time while the ducks generallj^ migrate 

 in the dark. Gulls and Terns move as 

 a rule during the day, for though they 

 are as well provided with means of 

 transportation they are still among 

 our uost deliberate migrants, and 

 seem indifferent as to time. I have 

 watched a flock of Gulls following our 

 steamer on the great lakes and Atlan- 

 tic and have in one instance proven 

 that a particular bird has followed a 

 boat continuously for three days. This 

 I was enabled to do from the fact that 

 this particular bird in the flock had 

 received an injury to its leg which 

 caused the foot to hang low and there- 

 by we were able to identify the follow- 

 er. At certain seasons, most any time 

 when the birds are not engaged in 

 nesting, the Gulls are much given to 

 following ships and a great many 

 gather their principal living from the 

 scraps thrown out from the ship's gal- 

 ley. 



Herons generally migrate at night 

 and also often fish during the darkest 

 nights when they have young to pro- 

 vide for. Rails and all Snipes, Plo- 

 vers and other shore birds migrate un- 

 der cover of darkness, but very often 

 Golden Plovers and several species of 

 Sandpipers move in the daytime. Tur- 

 keys and Quails would migrate in day- 

 light if they were given to seasonal 

 ^movements, as they are like the do- 

 mestic birds and given to early retire- 

 ment. 



Many years of careful observation 

 have convinced me that the Rails move 

 in the darkness, but I cannot say 

 whether they select a starlight or 

 cloudy night. No one has ever told 

 me of meeting with a migrating Rail 

 in the day time and I have never yet 

 seen a Rail of any species, excepting 

 the Coots, flying across the land in 

 the day time. Coots, however, mi- 

 grate in flocks in the daylight, at 

 least at times as I have noted. 



If observers are questioned they will 

 probably tell you that more species se- 

 lect dark and cloudy nights for their 

 migrating movements. This is also 

 my opinion, though we may all be in 

 the wrong. If we are alert to catch 

 the notes of passing birds we shall 

 hear ten to twenty times as many on a 

 cloudy night as compared to a clear 

 night, which would seem to indicate 

 that the birds generally select this 

 kind of a night for travel. When 

 many birds are found dead in the city, 

 from being killed by violent contact 

 with the electric lights, or when vast 

 destruction from the tower of the coast 

 light house, it is almost invariable 

 that the evidence of havoc follows a 

 cloudy and tempestuous night. Some 

 may say that this does not prove that 

 birds prefer cloudy nights, and simply 

 shows that destruction may folluw on 

 these nights; the dead and maimed 

 birds simply proving that the mi- 

 grants selected the wrong time for 

 their journey, and the many notes 

 heard on a murky night as compared 

 with those of a moonlight night, sim- 

 ply shows that the migrants are con- 

 fused and unable to keep well together. 

 It is at these times that the birds fly 

 against the destructive electric lights 

 and are killed in great numbers, all 

 over the land, and both on the coast 

 as well as interior. Let us call atten- 

 tion of observers to one point in this 

 connection; namely, that it is after a 

 cloudy and often tempestuous night 

 that we meet with the greatest number 

 of fresh arrivals in our morning trips 

 in April and May. 



Over forty species of dead birds have 

 been brought to us as evidence of the 

 vast destruction of light and wire in 

 this vicinity, and over one hundred 

 species have been listed as having met 

 destruction along our line of light- 

 houses on the Atlantic seaboard. The 

 lights of cities, especially the tower 

 electric lights, are very destructive to 



