r.'s TiiK Wilson Buli.ktin — No. 57. 



SOME MIGRATION RECORDS ALONG THE CEDAR 

 POINT SAND SPIT, ERIE COUNTY, OHIO, 190G. 



BY LYNDS JONES. 



It has been my good fortune to spend the better part of one 

 dav each week from October 15 to November 3G, along this 

 stretch of sand beach which separates the extensive marshes 

 east of Sandusky from the free waters of lake Erie. The rich 

 fauna of the marshes on the one side and the distinctively open 

 water fauna of the lake on the other, combined with the dis- 

 tinctly land fauna of the sand spit itself, forms a combination 

 unsuspected for interest and value. 



The part of the seven and a half mile sand spit traversed 

 varies from about 4 to over 20 rods in width, and ii\ m a low 

 sand bank over which the storm waves wash to considerable 

 dunes and ridges perhaps fifteen feet above the surface of the 

 marsh. The sand supports a thicket growth of bushes which 

 are tangled with wild grape vines in luxuriant fruitage, and 

 many trees of considerable size, mostly willows and cotton- 

 woods. A rank growth of coarse grass fronts the lake out of 

 reach of the waves, and the marsh side of the sand is sharply 

 defined by a rank growth of reeds and swamp- vegetation. The 

 surface of the marsh, particularly at its eastern end, is nearly 

 covered with dense vegetation, but here and there open water 

 still remains. There are no dry islands in the marsh. At its 

 western end the marsh merges into the open water of the bay. 



]\Iy route lay from the town of Huron, at the mouth of Huron 

 river, where the marshes are fast disappearing before the on- 

 slaught of the dock and land makers in preparation for a 

 mammoth ore dumping ground or else another huge steel 

 works, westward along the beach some six miles, to a little 

 west of the middle of the sand spit proper. The best feeding 

 ground for gulls and shore birds seemed to be the beach in 

 the immediate vicinitv of Huron, where quantities of garbage 

 are washed ashore during northerly winds. More or less exten- 

 sive fields lie immediately south of the marshes, where geese 

 are wont to spend the early morning hours. It has frequently 

 happened that the part of the route between Huron and the 



