3 7 2 Bishop, Bird Migration at New Haven, Conn. Loct 



THE DIRECTION OF FLIGHT IN THE FALL MIGRA- 

 TION AT NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT. 



BY LOUIS B. BISHOP, M. D. 



How birds find their way in their long journeys between their 

 summer and winter homes is in a large part yet unsettled, and a 

 recent writer on migration appears doubtful as to what degree 

 they guide themselves by natural landmarks, such as coast lines 

 and river valleys (Cooke, ' Some New Facts about the Migration 

 of Birds '). It is in the hope of throwing a little light on this sub- 

 ject that I have brought together a few facts witnessed by myself 

 regarding the flight of birds during the fall migration at New 

 Haven. Mr. Brewster has shown that land birds collect in the 

 fall migration at Point Lepreaux, New Brunswick, on their way 

 south ('Bird Migration,' Memoirs Nutt. Ornith. Club, No. i), and 

 Dr. Merriam, the same fact regarding the Straits of Mackinac 

 in the northward movement (' Bird Migration at the Straits of 

 Mackinac,' Auk, Vol. II, p. 64) ; Mr. W. Eagle Clarke has studied 

 the movement of birds past various English lighthouses (Ibis, 

 1902, p. 246, and 1904, p. 112, etc.), and Mr. Loomis, the migra- 

 tory movements of water-fowl at Monterey Bay, California (' Cali- 

 fornia Water Birds,' Nos. 1 to 5) ; but few continued observations 

 of the direction of flight of land birds as they pass a given point 

 some distance from the shore seem to have been placed on record. 

 For several autumns past I have watched in the early morning on 

 a number of different occasions the flight of migrants over a hill 

 near New Haven, and give here in full the result of my observa- 

 tions in 1904, with the most important flights noticed in previous 

 years. 



To explain the peculiarity of flight witnessed it is necessary to 

 give some description of the country around New Haven, and 

 especially of the point where this migration was observed. The 

 southern coast line of Connecticut, formed by Long Island Sound, 

 runs nearly east and west, turning toward the southwest near 

 New Haven, and a gap in it, extending about four miles due north 

 and one to two miles broad, constitutes New Haven Harbor. At 

 the northeastern extremity of the harbor the Quinnipiac River, 



