"bobolink route" is not popular with the greater number of migrants. 



Formerly, it was thought most North America landbirds 

 migrated to Central America via the Florida coast, then crossed to 

 Cuba, and finally made the short flight from the western tip of Cuba 

 to Yucatan. A glance at the map would suggest this as a most natural 

 route, but, as a matter of fact, it is practically deserted except for a 

 few swallows and shorebirds or an occasional landbird storm-driven 

 from its normal course. What actually happens in the fall is that 

 many of the birds breeding east of the Appalachian Mountains travel 

 parallel to the seacoast in a more or less southwesterly direction and, 

 apparently maintaining this same general course from northwestern 

 Florida, cross the Gulf of Mexico to the coastal regions of eastern 

 Mexico. They thus join migrants from farther inland in using route 

 No. 4 (Fig. 18). 



Routes used by the Atlantic brant merit some detail because their 

 flight paths were long misunderstood. These birds winter on the 

 Atlantic coast, chiefly at Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, but depending 

 upon the severity of the season and the food available, south also to 

 North Carolina. Their breeding grounds are in the Canadian arctic 

 archipelago and on the coasts of Greenland. According to the careful 

 studies of Lewis (1937), the main body travels northward in spring 

 along the coast to the Bay of Fundy, overland to Northumberland 

 Strait, which separates Prince Edward Island from mainland New 

 Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A minor route appears to lead 

 northward from Long Island Sound by way of the Housatonic and 

 Connecticut River Valleys to the St. Lawrence River. 



After spending the entire month of May feeding and resting in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, the eastern segment of the brant population 

 resumes its journey by departing overland from the Bay of Seven 

 Island area. The eastern and larger segment of the population 

 appears to fly almost due north to Ungava Bay and from there to 

 nesting grounds, probably on Baffin Island and Greenland. The 

 smaller segment travels a route slightly north of west to the 

 southeastern shores of James Bay, although east of that area some of 

 the flocks take a more northwesterly course by descending the Fort 

 George River to reach the eastern shore of James Bay. Upon their 

 arrival at either of these two points on James Bay, the brants of this 

 western segment turn northward and proceed along eastern Hudson 

 Bay to their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. 



In general, the fall migration of the brant follows the routes 

 utilized in the spring. At this season, the eastern population appears 

 only on the western and southern shores of Ungava Bay before 

 continuing their southward journey to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 beyond. Also, it appears that most of the birds of the western 

 segment, instead of following the eastern shores of Hudson and 

 James bays, turn southwestward across the former, by way of the 

 Belcher Islands, to Cape Henrietta Maria, and from there south 

 along the western shores of James Bay by way of Akimiski and 

 Charlton Islands. At the southern end of James Bay, they are joined 



72 



