84 On the Migration of North American Birds. 



cranes, and some species of land birds, are distinctly heard, and oth- 

 ers fly silently. Wild pigeons are frequently seen, at early dawn, 

 in the higher atmosphere. They fly higher by night than by day, 

 and thus experience less inconvenience from darkness. The great 

 Hooping Crane scarcely ever pauses in his migrations, to rest, in the 

 middle states. I have heard his hoarse notes as he was passing over 

 the highest mountains of the Alleghany ; but he was always too 

 high to be seen by the naked eye. This bird seems to take wing 

 from his usual winter retreats in the south, ascends into the higher 

 regions of the air, and scarcely halts, until he arrives at his breeding 

 places, in or near the polar regions. 



There are very few birds that do not migrate, either on account 

 of food or climate. The observations of Captains Parry and Frank- 

 lin, of Dr. Richardson and their associates, who wintered in the polar 

 regions, prove, that birds which never visit temperate climates and 

 which naturalists formerly supposed were wholly confined to the 

 arctic circle, leave the intensely cold regions of the north in winter 

 and migrate southerly to the distance of many hundred miles. 

 These adventurous explorers of the polar regions speak of the drear- 

 iness and desolation of these countries in the winter and the almost 

 total absence of animal life. During the whole winter, spent at 

 Melville Island, a pair of ravens, (Corvus Corax,) alone w T ere seen 

 and these they state had frequently a white ring around their necks, 

 " caused by the accumulated encrustments of their own breath and 

 giving them a very singular appearance." The snow Buntings, 

 (Emberiza nivalis,) the Ptarmigan, (Tetrao Lagopus,) and two 

 other species of Artie Grouse, (Tetrao Salicti and T. rupestris,) 

 were their earliest visitants in the spring ; and these birds are in Eu- 

 rope and in the fartherest northern settlements of our continent found 

 only in the coldest winters, and on the highest mountains ; still we 

 perceive that even they find limits beyond which they cannot live 

 in winter. 



Birds migrate, either to avoid the cold of winter, or to find more 

 congenial, or more abundant food, and I am induced to believe that 

 in general, the latter is a stronger principle than the former. The 

 small number that remain amidst the snows of the north are either 

 carnivorous, such as a few of the Owls and Hawks, the Ravens. ( Cor- 

 vus Corax,) the Canada Jay, ( Corvus Canadensis,) and the north- 

 ern Shrike, (Lanius borealis,). These pick up a scanty subsistence 

 by feeding on a few of the smaller birds that remain, or by follow- 



