A BOYS' BIRD EVENING. 169 



Some species go very far. Even some of 

 our tiny warblers are found in Greenland. 

 Many birds rear their young during the brief 

 summer within the limits of the Arctic circle. 

 Travelers who have penetrated farthest to 

 the North report that flocks of wild geese are 

 still seen pressing their lonely flight toward the 

 pole. Whether they really find an open polar 

 sea is only a matter of speculation and surmise. 



Another sharp questioner led me to ex]3lain 

 the '^gathering of the clans" preparatory to 

 migration. One fair April day I was rambling 

 along on an old canal that cuts its way through 

 an extensive marsh south of the Mississippi 

 River, opposite the city of New Orleans, when 

 a promiscuous chattering reached my ear. 

 Pressiug my way through the tangle of bushes 

 and weeds, I soon discovered a large company 

 of red- winged blackbirds perched in a clump 

 of small trees, evidently holding a session of 

 senate to discuss their prospective journey to 

 their Northern summer hal)itat. It was pre- 

 cisely like the councils they hold in the North 

 in autumn a little before taking the air line 

 route for the South. In northern Alabama, a 

 few wrecks later, a flock of male bobolinks 

 were assembled in a noisy synod, obviously for 

 the same purpose. 



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