3JO BrJKWSTKJR on Rubin Roosti. [October 



the treetops just ;is they gain the woods. The average height 

 of Might is a little above the trees, but it varies at different periods 

 of the same evening as well as on different evenings. As a rule 

 the birds come lower and lower as the twilight deepens. They 

 seem to fly lowest — as might be expected — on cloudy and espec- 

 ially rainy nights, but highest — as certainly would not be sup- 

 posed — on cloudless nights when the air is filled tuilh dense 

 haze. On a particularly hazy evening (Aug. 31, 1SS9) the 

 (lights passing over Mr. Faxon's house were so high that "•many 

 birds were just discernible." As only 450 were counted against 

 835 of the preceding evening, Mr. Faxon concludes "that one half 

 of them were beyond my ken." The presence or absence of wind 

 may have more to do with this matter than the conditions just 

 mentioned, for all the especially high flights that I have witnessed 

 have occurred during nearly or perfectly still weather. 



A good many birds approach the roost by short, interrupted 

 flights, lingering on the way in isolated trees or groves where 

 they often sing for a minute or two. At the Longwood roost more 

 than two thirds of the entire colony arrive in this manner, proba- 

 bly because the swamp is in the bottom of a deep hollow 

 surrounded by hills crowned with woods or orchards which afford 

 convenient places for alighting. 



The first comers reach the roost an hour or more before sunset, 

 but for the next thirty or forty minutes the arrivals are few in 

 number and at wide intervals although they gradually increase. 

 There is rarely anything like a continuous or heavy flight until 

 within fifteen or twenty minutes of sunset, but rather more than 

 half the total number usually pass in before the sun has dipped 

 below the horizon. 



For about fifteen minutes after sunset the rush continues una- 

 bated. It then begins to slacken, always diminishing more 

 rapidly than it grew, and often ending with somewhat marked 

 abruptness. Stragglers, however, continue to arrive until it is 

 too dark to see them distinctly except against the light in the 

 western sky. 



The earlier comers usually alight on the topmost twigs of the 

 taller trees and sometimes, after a brief rest, fly back to the fields 

 to feed, as if conscious that they were ahead of time. If there is 

 a brook or spring near at hand many birds visit it to drink or 

 bathe. They are also fond of collecting in the upper branches of 



