68 



THE MUSEUM. 



ception. During any these nights 

 mentioned, should rain or strong winds 

 come suddenly, all but a few individ- 

 uals will leave at once or settle down 

 on the ground. Should you then go 

 out with a lantern you would find the 

 grass full of them, and as you walk 

 along they will fly up in all directions, 

 some tlying against your lantern, others 

 alighting in front of you, only to re- 

 peat the same movements as you again 

 approached near them 



On some nights, when all conditions 

 seemed favorable, and hundreds if not 

 thousands of birds were scattered over 

 the island, only scattering birds if any, 

 ■tvould approach the light. I have no- 

 ticed this many times when during the 

 day I would walk over the island and 

 notice the myriads of birds congregat- 

 ed, and think what a display the night 

 would bring and the mortality which 

 would accompany it, but when night 

 came not a bird would make its ap- 

 pearance, nor could I next morning 

 find a dead or disabled bird. If these 

 birds went on their way as soon as 

 night came, as many others must have 

 taken their place during the night, for 

 the ne.xt morning they would be as 

 plenty as they were the past day. If 

 they arrived during the night they did 

 not manifest it by sight or sound in 

 leaving or approaching the island. 



I have never noticed any birds 

 around the light during foggy weather 

 excepting once, of which I will quote 

 just as I have it in my journal. 



"September 20, 1897. The wind 

 today has been southeast and moder- 

 ate. At 7 p. m. it commenced to 

 rain, up to this no birds had been seen 

 or heard around the light. 8:40 p. ni. 

 came fog, when suddenly the air re- 

 sounded with the notes of birds and 

 they could be seen flying around in the 

 rays of the light. 9:25 p. m. the fog 

 cleared and it rained very hard, when 

 the birds all disappeared as (juickly as 

 as they came. Only two Pine Warb- 

 lers came on the lantern." 



I have noticed that some species are 

 more persistent than others in remain- 



ing on the light, especially the Hermit 

 Thrush, also the different sparrows 

 and a few of the warblers. I have gone 

 out side many times and taken them 

 from the glass where they were strug- 

 gling to get in, carried them down be- 

 low the direct rays of the light and 

 even into entire darkness, and released 

 them, when they would invariably re- 

 turn to the light, some direct, others 

 flying around in the rays of light grad- 

 ually drawing nearer, until they would 

 strike the glass and com.mence their 

 struggles as before. I have repeated 

 this experiment many times with the 

 Hermit Thrush, Maryland Yellow- 

 throat, Northern Parula Warbler and 

 American Red-start, and of the Spar- 

 rows, White-throated, Song, Savan- 

 nah and Bay-winged, but always with 

 the same results. Not only have I 

 noticed this persistency to return to 

 the light, but also to the out buildings 

 which are painted white. Where the 

 light shone directly on them there 

 would be a number of the same spec- 

 ies struggling with the same persisten- 

 cy against the shingles, and on remov- 

 ing them I would have the same re- 

 sults as before mentioned. I have 

 tried this experiment with the Red- 

 eyed Vireo, Pine Warbler, Myrtle 

 Warbler, Black-throated Green Warb- 

 ler, and Leach's Petrel, and although 

 some would return they would be the 

 exception. 



Of species which are attracted by 

 the light, but seldom if ever strike it, 

 may be mentioned the Black-breasted 

 Plover, Ring-necked Plover, Sander- 

 ling Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, 

 Least Sandpiper and Spotted Sand- 

 piper. I have vs'atched all of these 

 species many nights, an hour or more 

 at a time, circling around in the rays 

 of the light each uttering the note pe- 

 culiar to its species and apparantly 

 much alarmed. Although they would 

 linger around for so long a time, they 

 only came within a certain distance of 

 the light when they would recede near- 

 ly out of sight, only to return to the 

 same distance as before. Although, 



