INTRODUCTION. 



wave of migration which reached across the land swept from 

 northwest to southeast; therefore, the greatest congestion of 

 birds in winter was found along the middle and south Atlantic 

 coasts, and in the southern States bordering upon the Gulf 

 of Mexico. There was also in Mexico a similar congestion 

 upon a smaller scale, for a considerable part of the flight com- 

 ing down the Pacific coast penetrated to Mexico and beyond. 

 Some species went on to South America, and a few followed 

 the South American continent to Patagonia. This line of 

 migration continues unchanged to-day, except for the decrease 

 in numbers. 



While many Alaskan birds come down the Pacific coast 

 in their migration, a great part of them follow up the region 

 watered by the Yukon and its tributaries, going southeast 

 into the Mackenzie-Athabasca region, and reach the Atlantic 

 coast, together with many of the birds of that area and others 

 of the Hudson Bay country, by passing down south of Hudson 

 Bay and through the region of the Great Lakes. Some thus 

 reach southern New England and New York, while others 

 appear on the Atlantic coast farther south; still others turn 

 more to the southward, and, keeping east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and the higher plains, or passing down the Mississippi 

 valley, reach Florida and the other Gulf States. Southern 

 New England was once particularly fortunate in the numbers 

 of species and individuals which came into its territory in 

 migration. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut lie 

 within the scope of the great wave of southeastern migration 

 from Alaska and the region west of Hudson Bay, and they are 

 also directly in the path of the flight from Greenland, Baffin's 

 Land, Labrador and the Maritime Provinces. It was in part 

 this fortunate position at the junction of two streams of 

 migration that gave southern New England the abundance 

 of migratory game birds which the early voyagers and settlers 

 found there. Most of the maritime species from the Arctic 

 and the north Atlantic come as far as Massachusetts in winter, 

 while nearly all the wild-fowl and shore birds of the interior 

 once visited our waters and shores in fall, winter and spring. 



