530 Report of State Geologist. 



'I'he impression which may prevail that the winter residents are 

 smaller Ihan the summer forms is erroneous. The Shore-larks, which 

 winter Avith us, represent the same species which is resident in summer 

 and the northern form which is larger. The idea that many birds mi- 

 grate at night is coiTect. 



Some winters the Robins, Meadow Larks, Kingfishers, Killdeers, 

 Red-headed Woodpeckers and Chewinks remain with us. Other years 

 they pass to the southward. Even when they are here, some years they 

 seem to the casual observer to have left; yet the inquisitive lover of 

 birds knows his little friends are to be found, even in inclement 

 weather, though they do not appear to the uninitiated. To such an one a 

 protected thicket, a deep ravine, an unexposed hillside, a dense wood- 

 land, as his tramp leads through such out-of-the-way places, is found 

 to be inhabited by forms which have disappeared to many eyes. The 

 instinct which calls upon some to seek the better feeding grounds, the 

 warmer places of earth, has impelled these to well-protected spots and 

 localities where food may be most easily obtained. 



The Catbird, Blackbird, Chipping Sparrow and Phoebe go but a 

 little farther south, some years lingering along the Ohio River. 



The Marsh Wrens, Red-winged Blackbird, Hermit Thrush and 

 sometimes the beautiful little Ruby-crowned Kinglet and eccentric lit- 

 tle Blue-gray Gnat-eatcher linger nlong the gulf coast, while all the 

 north is snow-bound. 



Other birds go farther on their winter journey. The Baltimore 

 Orioles go as far as Panama. Our cheery Bobolink with "his Quaker 

 wife," both plain clad when cold comes nigh, visit the West Indies and 

 South America. The King Bird reaches the West Indes and Bolivia. 

 The Night Hawk covers the same islands and Eastern South America. 

 The Cerulean Warbler, on the contrary, visits Cuba and Central Amer- 

 ica. Kirtland's rare warbler winters only in the Bahamas. The little 

 Spotted Sandpiper visits Brazil. The Blue-winged Teal extends its 

 journey to Ecuador, and Swainson's Thrush to Peru. 



Some make more extended tours even than these. The American 

 Golden Plover, a well-known game bird, which breeds in the northern 

 part of our continent, when winter holds the northern hemisphere in 

 his cold grasp, is found as far away as Patagonia, while the Knot, a 

 coast bird which breeds in very high northern latitudes, the eggs of 

 which were taken by the members of the Greely Arctic expedition at 

 Ft. Conger, about north latitude 82 degrees, ranges to Cape 

 Horn during our winter. Thus it will be observed migra- 

 ti<m may mean the trip to the protected thicket in the vi- 

 rinity of wild grapes, blackberries and weed patches laden ynth seed 



