^°3y^'^] Trowbridge, Hazvk Fltg/ifs in Connecticut. 26 1 



tions and produced these flights, and with the material from the 

 observations which I made, I hoped to partly — if not wholly — 

 solve the question concerning the causes of the flocking of hawks 

 in Connecticut during the autumn migrations. 



Always during the last few days of August, and even later, 

 before the brisk fall winds commenced to blow, a few stragglers 

 of the Accipiters and Buteos would be seen soaring southward in 

 Connecticut, some drifting with the wind far above in the clouds, 

 while others were sailing low down over the fields. 



But in the middle of September, when the stronger winds blew 

 from the northwest and north, and the temperature lowered, the 

 number of hawks which were passing greatly increased. Some- 

 times, however, when there was little or no wind, and the day 

 was warm and dull, or if the prevailing winds had been southerly 

 for several days, very few hawks were observed. But suddenly, 

 when a fair breeze had sprung up from the northwest, the sky 

 above the land near the sea-coast became almost clouded with 

 hawks of various species, active and restless, circling and soaring 

 about. 



Flights in which there were many hundreds of birds I have 

 seen many times, and I have on certain occasions counted 

 several hundred hawks soaring together in one flock, looking like 

 an immense swarm of gigantic insects. Often on a day after a 

 flight, the wind having turned again to the south, many species of 

 hawks were found in the woods and about ledges of cliffs, some 

 perching on old trees, others lazily feeding, while a few were seen 

 soaring about in a sluggish manner, showing the presence of an 

 unusual number of hawks, although few of them appeared to be 

 migrating. 



On the wooded hills near Long Island Sound, during a flight, 

 the hawks were found flying through the trees, but as they passed 

 on and flew towards any very populated district, they arose high 

 above in the clouds, so that most of these birds must have passed 

 unseen except by those observers who were on the lookout for 

 them. 



On several occasions, before I had had the pleasure of being 

 actually in the midst of a hawk flight, I had observed large flocks 

 of hawks circling very high in the sky, and Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 



