92 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



May 6 'ind the greatest, comes up the Caribbean 



■ ~~ and Gulf coast, avoiding the Mexican in- 



terior ; and a third follows the line of the 

 Antilles and Bahamas to Florida and the 

 Carolinas. They travel slowly at first, 

 and straggle into our southern border by 

 twos and threes ; but soon the foremost 

 are overtaken by others, anxiety to get 

 on urges their wings, and they hasten 

 more and more, taking longer flights and 

 less rest, ever gathering numbers. They 

 infect the more northerly sojourners with 

 their unrest, and start them, also, north- 

 ward, until at last, in May, a great throng 

 of hurrying little travellers races through 

 our northern woods. Many stop here 

 while others push on into Canada, or 

 even to Alaska and the Arctic plains and 

 coasts. 



More and more as they proceed they 

 fail into certain established routes. Thus 

 the States of the eastern coast and New 

 England get all their birds by way of the 

 sea-coast, for these divide from the great 

 body at the southern end of the Allegha- 

 nies. The interior of the country is sup- 

 plied by the valley of the Mississippi, and 

 by following up its several tributaries. 

 Southern Ohio, for an instance, is almost 

 wholly supplied by way of the Ohio 

 River, not across the mountains. The 

 • reasons for this are mainly two : First, 



the rivers form an excellent guide; 

 second, these water-ways abound in food 

 to a much greater extent than do the 



