Bluebird Migrations — 1917 15 



realized when we first began onr work. That this large 

 flock should be any one of the large ones discovered follow- 

 ing the course of the river on the fourteenth can not be def- 

 initely stated. It is possible that the birds found plenty 

 in that wood so that they remained for a number of days, 

 and then continued in their flight when a warmer day ap- 

 peared. It is of interest to note that the first records of 

 migrants invariably come from locations near the river or 

 from woods but a little distance from the stream. On 

 March fourteenth, Mr. C. L. Webster, living only a block 

 from the Cedar Kiver, in the South-eastern migration path, 

 reported a large flock of bluebirds which remained for some 

 time in that vicinity. At noon of the same day a flock, of 

 which eighty-two were definitely counted by Master Harold 

 Fredrickson, was seen in the central portion of town, not 

 more than three blocks from the river, but seemingly 

 headed for an inland route by which they would cut off a 

 peculiar bend in the river and reach a swampy portion and 

 big wood beyond. About this same time of day reports 

 came from five different sources of scattered pairs or small 

 flocks of bluebirds in the same general part of town. All 

 of these sources might have been in the migration from the 

 direction which the larger flocks seemed to take. Two re- 

 ports had come of flocks seen very early in the morning of 

 this same day, but they were both of moderately small 

 numbers. As the day progressed we found that the flock 

 which had been reported at noon in the central part of 

 town had evidently reached the end of the cut-off which 

 they made in going through the city rather than following 

 the river direct. There was a flock of some fifty or more 

 seen at the end of this laud route. Then, still later in the 

 day as evidenced by the sequence of the records of the 

 bureau, a report came from the edge of some woods lo- 

 cated some three miles to the North-west of Charles City, 

 of a flock of probably two hundred individuals which was 

 seen flying over the site of a last year's garden. Some of 

 the flock paused and made a meal of asparagus berries 



