Taverxer and Swales, ox Birds of Point Pelee. 47 



the last shrubbery and then dropping down to within a few 

 feet of the sand follows its curves and windings out to its 

 most extreme tip when, squaring away at an angle to its 

 flight of a moment ago, it makes straight for Pelee Island. 

 We saw this many times, nor did they once hesitate or pause 

 from the time when they first hove in sight over the bush tops 

 until they faded away in- the field of our glasses over the 

 waters of the lake. Contrary to other species noted, they 

 flew low, and according to Dr. Jones, who saw them from a 

 boat out in the lake, they kept, as much as possible, low in the 

 trough of the seas to escape the wind pressure of higher 

 levels. 



In most localities in this region fall birds, even in the height 

 of the migrations, are generally rather hard to find. They 

 cruise along in bunches often of many individuals and species. 

 When such companies are found birds are to be seen all about, 

 but soon the host has passed on and the woods are compara- 

 tively deserted until another such company is found. During 

 the height of the fall migrations, the last of August and the 

 first of September at Point Pelee, however, the conditions are 

 much different. The birds are in a flock but one might say that 

 it occupies the whole Point. Sometimes, wherever one turns 

 many individuals are in sight and one is bewildered by their 

 numbers. Then some night we hear the "cheeps" of migrants 

 high in the air and the next morning the multitude will be gone 

 and, with the exception of some few species, birds will be hard 

 to find. Then again, thev will gradually increase till they reach 

 their maximum numbers and again vanish. In fact, the whole 

 history of the fall migrations at the Point seems to be a series 

 of gradual augmentations and sudden diminutions of bird life, 

 as though the rruigrants continue to arrive until certain con- 

 ditions have been fulfilled or a degree of saturation of bird life 

 had arrived and then all leave in a body. About one-third of the 

 wa^- from the Point to Pelee Island, but some miles to the east 

 of the direct line, there used to be a light-house that is now de- 

 serted. It was kept by a man by the name of Grubb, who told 

 us that at times great numbers of birds used to become 

 dazzled bv the gflare of the liffht, and striking the glass of the 



