The Wilson Bulletin— No. 47 55 



SPRING MIGRATION IN LORAIN COUNTY, O., 1904. 



BY LYNDS JONES. 



There are migrations and migrations, but the migrations 

 of 1904 have proved to be in a class by themselves. For eleven 

 years I have studied both spring and fall migrations at Ober- 

 lin with more or less care, and for six years at Grinnell, Iowa. 

 Only once during this period of seventeen years has there been 

 anything like what we have witnessed this year. That was 

 in the spring of 1888, at Grinnell, Iowa, when the weather 

 conditions were somewhat similar during the last days of 

 April and the first two weeks of May. 



In 1888 the weather had been about normal up to the 

 middle of April, when a decided warm wave of considerable 

 extent called the early warblers, and other birds which travel 

 with them, north. This wave subsided on the 28th under the 

 pressure of a decided change to cold, cloudy weather, particu- 

 larly cloudy nights. This unfavorable condition prevailed, 

 with frost on the 13th, 14th and i6th of May, with continued 

 cloudiness and northerly winds, until the 17th. The warm 

 wave which followed brought the birds in swarms, br'ght 

 males, young, and females, all in the same company, some of 

 them apparently already mated. There were scattering arri- 

 vals during the interval, but these were largely confined to 

 hardy individuals and did not represent the forward movement 

 of the host. Some of the migrants tarried until June 10. 



The season of 1904, while clearly below the average in 

 temperature for nearly the whole of March, seemed to be 

 opening on the first of April, but speedily made good the tra- 

 ditions of the day, for snow fell on the ^rd. A feeble warm 

 wave on the 8th, 9th and loth made very little impression on 

 the birds. Another warm wave, covering the 21st, 22nd, 

 23rd and 24th, caused a sprinkling of arrivals, but the sue- 



