i8^" 1 Jones, Bird Migration in Iowa. I '^ "? 



weather continued long enough would bring the later migrants 

 up with the earlier ones, and bring about the state of affairs 

 above mentioned. 



There are recorded in my notes several instances of birds 

 arriving mated. But these are isolated cases of individual pairs. 

 They do not affect the main question. All exceptions must be 

 considered rare, when the whole bird population is taken into 

 account. 



Most birds arrive singing. The first intimation we have of 

 approaching spring is the true song of the Prairie Horned Lark, 

 the ' booming ' of the Prairie Chickens and the weird voices of the 

 Owls. The warm days of January are their first signals for 

 heralding spring. Some birds are not singing when they 

 appear. A notable example is Dickcissel. When my studies 

 of the migrations began, I did not know the first individuals of 

 this bird which came in the spring. It was not until Mr. Otto 

 Widmann, now of Old Orchard, Mo., then Superintendent of 

 Migration in the Mississippi Valley, told me that the actions of 

 the first arrivals were very different from what I was accustomed 

 to later in the season, and that the queer chirping note really 

 belonged to Dickcissel, that 1 realized that a bird could arrive 

 silent. Henslow's Sparrow is another silent arrival, beginning 

 its song only when the females arrive. I have many times failed 

 to hear song notes from several of the transient Warblers during 

 their entire stay. There are many other examples. 



Nothing has been said about the night migrations. Not a 

 little attention has been given to that phase of the subject, but my 

 notes are not of a character to warrant any discussion of it at 

 this time. More study of the night migrations here in Ohio 

 will enable me to make far more than is now possible of those 

 taken in Iowa, just as the years of study of the diurnal migra- 

 tions in Ohio have thrown light upon Iowa notes. Conditions 

 are different here at Oberlin, with the lake so near northward. 

 Without the comparisons which this region affords, and the 

 broadening of the field of view which it gives, the subject 

 .seemed almost unworthy of consideration at such length. I 

 hope sometime to draw a number of interesting comparisons 

 between the movements at Grinnell, Iowa, and at Oberlin, Ohio. 



