128 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 88 



SPRING MIGRATION (1914) AT HOUSTON, TEXAS. 

 By George Finlay Simmons. 



For several j'ears past, the writer has taken a particular 

 interest in the migratory movements of the more common 

 birds at Houston, Harris County, in southeastern Texas. Dur- 

 ing the spring migration of 1914, he made semi-weekly one- 

 day trips into the woodlands and fields within a mile or two 

 of the city limits with the special object of ascertaining as 

 near as possible what relation, if any, existed between bird 

 migration at Houston and the sudden changes of weather at 

 that point. 



It is to be regretted that trips could not be made each day 

 during that season and the exact dates of arrival and depar- 

 ture ascertained. But the results obtained satisfy the writer 

 that, as Prof. Wells W. Cooke has already stated,^ local 

 weather conditions on the day of arrival are minor factors iji 

 determining the appearance of a species at that place and 

 time, and that the major factors in the problem are th(3 

 weather conditions far to the southward, where the night's 

 flight began. 



The writer does find, however, that local weather condi- 

 tions greatly affect the dates of departure of our migrants for 

 their more northern summer homes, thus further strengthen- 

 ing the theor}^ set forth in the last clause of the preceding 

 paragraph. 



Faunal Position. — Harris County, of which Houston is the 

 county seat, lies well within the semitropic or Gulf strip of 

 the Austroriparian zone of southeastern Texas. Houston 

 lies on Buffalo Bayou in the southeast-central part of the 

 county. 



With very few exceptions, the notes were all taken on the 

 south side of Buffalo Bayou, a coastal prairie region Avith few 

 farms or ranches ; the only timber in this section lies in strips 

 from a quarter to a half mile Avide along Buffalo and Bray's 



1 CookP. "Wells W. The Relation of Bird Jligration to the AA'eather. Auk, 

 Vol. XXX, April, 1013, pp. 1'05-221. Cf. first parag-raph, p. 20.-,. 



