168 



THE OOLOGIST 



Snakts migrate; but this is always 

 from necessity and is rarely if ever a 

 seasonal feature with them as with the 

 frogs and tcads. This is the case in 

 my neighborhood, though we might 

 say that the vernal love making and 

 song chorus by the tree frogs as well as 

 the common garden toads which vi9it 

 the pools each spring is a migration. 

 Insects are well known migrants; often 

 apparently without aim as in the move- 

 ments of a flock of the big brown 

 monarch butterfly which always moves 

 with the breeze. But again we have 

 the destructive visitations of the dread- 

 ed army worm and other destructive 

 caterpillars which enter and destroy 

 whole orchards and groves. 



Among mammals there are many well 

 known instances of migratory move- 

 ments and these when studied are in- 

 variably found to be the direct results 

 of the food r< quirementi of the animals. 

 Many instances of the movements of 

 immense numbers ofi-quinels are re- 

 corded. Over seventy years ago in 

 New York state my father saw an in- 

 stance of this nature. Tte squirrels 

 weie bo numerous that they were all 

 over the section and were captured by 

 the simplest devices. Then they passed 

 on and were not seen agaiu ia numbers 

 for years. 



Theie is an iateie>ting point in the 

 fact that bats do not migrate to »uy ex- 

 tent, so far as miy be learned from our 

 presei t knowledge. 



The only mammal gifted— now with flight, 

 Yet strangely ever living in one place. 



This is the more rennrkahle when we 

 know that they could fly to warmer 

 quarters in the autumn and ihus avoid 

 the period of hibernal ion. Though so 

 well provided with the means of trans- 

 portation they are the most thoroughly 

 devoted to one neighborhood of all our 

 mammals and it is fair to say that the 

 reptiles of the north have a wider range 

 in the warmer months than do the bats 

 of a neighborhood. The little brown 



hat rarely flies over a course greater 

 than two hurdred yards in exteDt in 

 the capture of its prey in an evening's 

 flight. Yet is safe to say that b ts do 

 migrate at times and under certain con- 

 ditions. 



It is considered remarkable that the 

 delicate Warblers, Vireos, Kinplets, 

 Swallows and others should arrive in 

 the spring so nearly on thtir appoint- 

 ments, but this does not appear nearly 

 as surprising to me as does the appear- 

 ance of the delicate Chickadee, Pine 

 Siskin, Creeper and other small species 

 in winter; mites of flesh whioh gambel 

 about the evergreens in the villages 

 and the bare trunks of the trees in the 

 most seyere cold weather, and evident- 

 ly in perfect erjoyrrent. 



It is reasonab e to conclude that mi- 

 gration occurs each year among the 

 more northern species that visit us 

 occasionally in the winter, as the Bohe 

 mian Waxwing, Pine and Evening Gros- 

 beaks, Crossbills and others, and the 

 fact that we do not always meet with 

 them is not proof that they are not to 

 be found somewhere within our lati- 

 tudes; they are probably straggling 

 in some other quarter. It is a fact that 

 there is no point in Michigan where we 

 may expect to find these northern birds 

 each year and some of them are only to 

 be seen at very rare intervals. 



TO BE CONTINUED. 



A Large Set. 



On May 2, 1902 1 found a Flicker's 

 nest in an old apple tree on my lawn. 

 The hole was a deep one and at the 

 time there were five eggs in it. I took 

 oat three aui left the others for nest 

 e^gs. In four days I cal ed around and 

 again there were five eggs. This time 

 I only took two eggs. I kept on taking 

 eggs in this way until I had twenty- 

 three. Then I let the poor Flicker 

 have a rest and a chance to hatch out 

 some. T. B. Parker, 



Newtonville, Mass. 



