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The facts about the blackpoll warbler sustain this theory almost as 
well as those about the ter tern, the gannet or any other water species. 
The Blackpoll. It winters south of the equator and nests north of the 
Arctic Circle; its journey to its breeding grounds is a 10,000 miles round 
trip. It passes through Richmond about May 15 and returns September 
15; its movements as it passes by us are deliberate. It cannot spend 
more than two months in its northern habitat; these must be very busy 
months. Nest making and family rearing are its chief business during 
these two months. 
In a few minutes, or at least hours, the salmon prepares his nest and 
lays his eggs 1,000 miles up the Columbia from the Pacific, and we con- 
clude he came for this. 
In two months the blackpoll prepares its nest, lays its eggs, hatches 
its young, and rears them beyond the most critical periods of their exist- 
ence, and starts back. Did it come to eat insects on the way, or to dis- 
charge this race duty? It is a ground nester; on or near the ground in 
that high latitude its eggs and family are safe from nest-robbing reptiles 
which abound in the warmer districts where it makes its winter home. 
Does it not make it wisdom’s child, if it makes this long journey to nest 
in safety? If, as Aristotle said 2,500 years ago, the study of zoology is a 
study of fitness, it is real zoology to study the migrations of such birds 
as the blackpoll. 
This argument applies to the water birds, which in countless num- 
bers and numerous species fly over Indiana in early spring. The great 
majority of these nest on the ground near lakes and streams; some of 
them on floating islands in lakes, just the places where the eggs and young 
would be unsafe in their winter homes on account of reptiles. 
The young of these birds swim almost from the shell, and would be 
reasonably sure to be eaten in southern waters. 
The argument applies with almost the same force to all indefensible 
ground and low bush nesters, among which are the field sparrows, the 
vesper sparrow, dick-cissel, grasshopper sparrow, Savannah sparrow, 
bobolink, meadow lark, ground robin, brown thrasher, ete. 
Nearly all our migratory birds show protective coloration, or sexual 
dimorphism; these are a confession of inability to take care of themselves 
or their homes, in fight. Those that exhibit sexual dimorphism are— 
