186 The Wilson Bulletin — Xo. SI. 



am not prepared to say that the companies of young wer.' 

 unaccompanied by old birds, because in the nature of the 

 case it was not possible to carefully scan every bird in flocks 

 of twenty or more. However, in the case of the Cowbirds 

 the early flocks were small and no old birds of either sex 

 were seen with the young, and it is not at all likely that there 

 were in fact, for it is well known that the young of this 

 species do not gather with the adults until relatively late in 

 the summer. 



Of course this reversal of what we have come to accept 

 as the normal order of southward migration may be purely 

 local, due to the peculiar topographical conditions of the 

 region, but it seems to me that even this supposition is hardly 

 capable of logical demonstration. The very last Baltimore 

 Orioles to migrate were brilliant males, and the first noted 

 on the island were clearly young birds. If the same thing 

 had not happened on Point Pelee the next summer, when 

 weather conditions were markedly different, and the migra- 

 tions much less crowded, one might well believe that the con- 

 ditions in 1910 were local. One has suggested that as the 

 conditions are clearly local on Heligoland, which occupies 

 an unique position, so the unique position of Point Pelee and 

 Pelee Island may also be clearly local. This still further 

 emphasizes the need for co6i:erative work over a. wide area 

 simultaneously. There ought to be competent observers sta- 

 tioned at short intervals from Toronto to Milwaukee, inland 

 as well as along the shore of lake Erie, and several lines 

 from western New York westward as far as Chicago or 

 farther, for both southward and northward migrations. Un- 

 less observations are made every day the results are only 

 ai)])roximate. They ought to he continuous, but who of us 

 can spend all of his time in outdoor bird study? 



