MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 277 



birds nesting in the states east of the Alleghanies simply 

 find their more genial winter conditions in our southern 

 states, and do not leave the United States. The purely 

 insectivorous species may cross the channel to Cuba and 

 winter there, or in some other of the West Indies. Some 

 of the birds of both East and West go to Central or South 

 America. Many of the eastern sparrows, the bluebirds, 

 and the robins of the eastern States usually winter 

 from the Middle to the Gulf States. The bobolink, one 

 of the birds rarely seen west of the Missouri river, is an 

 illustration of habit in migration. The bird winters in 

 South America. It enters the United States on its 

 northward journey, by way of Florida, comes northward 

 through the Eastern States, and from there strikes west- 

 ward to about the Mississippi line; then goes northward 

 to Michigan, Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota and 

 Manitoba, where it nests. In the autumn it reverses its 

 path but follows the same zigzag course, bidding farewell 

 to the United States at Florida's southern coast on its 

 way southward to its far South American winter home. 

 This is also one of the few examples of the two sexes, 

 migrating separately; the males, flying in large flocks, 

 precede the females by several days. 



Any observer of bird life in the plains states and east 

 of the Rockies, knows that the conditions for birds have 

 changed wonderfully in the last fifteen years, or even ten. 

 The homestead laws, beneficial to the settlers willing to 

 become pioneers in the wild, unsettled western country 

 in the early years of the half-century preceding this, 

 bore part of their fruit in the spread of birds into the 

 regions thus occupied. Gradually, many birds have been 

 encouraged to stay all the year, where food and shelter have 

 offered. The robins, the Kentucky cardinal, the blue jay, 



