82 IN BIRD “LAND. 
the north for the breeding-season, while Monsieur 
Thrasher comes up from the south and becomes 
my all-summer intimate. 
Another matter of intense interest concerning bird 
migration is that the migrants which winter farthest 
north are, as a rule, the first to arrive in the spring 
at their summer homes or vernal feeding-grounds. 
For instance, in the latter part of March or “the 
beginning of April, while the thrashers, cat-birds, 
and others which winter in our Southern States, are 
arriving in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, 
-and Ohio, the warbler army, which spends the winter 
in the West Indies, Yucatan, and Central America, 
is just crossing over from those countries to the 
southern borders of the United States. 
When autumn comes, experience has taught the 
migrants that their only safety lies in making their 
way to the south before cold weather sets in; for 
many of them certainly do start on this voyage 
long before winter drives them from their northern 
haunts. In my opinion, they are gifted with suf- 
ficient reason — call it instinct, if you like—to do 
this, and I do not think they are moved by an 
uncontrollable impulse which acts upon them as 
if they were mere automata. 
Portions of the migrating army often overlap. 
For example, the juncos and tree-sparrows are 
winter residents in my neighborhood, but very 
frequently they remain here a month or more after 
the earliest arrivals from the south. Presently, 
however, they grow nervous, flit about uneasily, 
