56 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



The utter stupidity of the birds particularly attracted my at- 

 tention, for when thc_y were picked off of a window sill or from 

 the floor and set free on the porch, they would fly pellmell 

 back again into the house among the people, as if they had for- 

 gotten all about the migration and their companions who were 

 still passing overhead, loudly chirping as if to reassemble their 

 bewildered fellow-travellers. 



From the fact that nearly all the birds examined were young, 

 it would seem plausible that the older and more experienced 

 ones were able to keep out of trouble rather than that they were 

 absent. The multitude was still passing at 11:20 p. m., when 

 I retired, and also at 1 a. m., when I happened to be awake. 

 The hotel lights were out soon after eleven, and as the shower 

 had passed over, the migration continued uninterrupted. 



With the exception of the Blackburnian Warbler, I found all 

 the species mentioned on the Manor property between June 26 

 and July 11, as well as the Magnolia and Golden-winged 

 Warblers. 



The direction of the flight seemed to be the same as the light 

 wind, i. e., from the northwest directly at right angles to the 

 trend of the mountains. Considering the early start of the mi- 

 gration and the length of time it continued, the supply of birds 

 must have come from a large expanse of country; those passing 

 over first coming from a point not far away and the later ones 

 from the country between the Pocono and North Mountain 

 plateaus. The Blackburnian Warbler, for instance, may have 

 come from the North Mountain, as I discovered it on a window 

 sill after half past ten. The birds of the whole area must have 

 started about the same time in order to have kept up this com- 

 paratively unbroken flight for so many hours. The question 

 might be asked why these birds should have flown directly 

 across the mountain instead of following the valleys as it might 

 be supposed they would do. In the first place, the birds are 

 distributed over the whole mountainous area, and when they 

 start to migrate their purpose probably is to get within the 

 shelter of the Delaware Valley as quickly as possible by the 

 most direct route, or it may be that they were simply returning 

 by the route of the previous spring, the only one these particu- 



