Wyoming and Colorado to join other flocks moving southward 

 through the Great Plains. 



Observations made in the vicinity of Corpus Christi, Texas, have 

 shown one of the short cuts (Fig. 18, route 5) that is part of the great 

 artery of migration. Thousands of birds pass along the coast to the 

 northern part of the State of Veracruz, Mexico. Coastal areas along 

 the State of Tamaulipas to the north are arid and so entirely unsuited 

 for frequenters of moist woodlands that it is probable that much, or 

 all, of this part of the route for these species is a short distance off 

 shore. It is used by such woodland species as the golden-winged 

 warbler, the worm-eating warbler, and the Kentucky warbler. 



Pacific Coast Route 



Although it does present features of unusual interest, the Pacific 

 coast route is not as important as some of the others described. 

 Because of the equable conditions that prevail, many species of birds 

 along the coast from the northwestern states to southeastern Alaska 

 either do not migrate or else make relatively short journeys. This 

 route has its origin chiefly in western Alaska, around the Yukon 

 River delta. Some of the scoters and other sea ducks of the north 

 Pacific region as well as the diminutive cackling Canada goose of the 

 Yukon River Delta use the coastal sea route for all or most of their 

 southward flight. The journey of the cackling goose, as shown by 

 return records from birds banded at Hooper Bay, Alaska, has been 

 traced southward across the Alaskan Peninsula and apparently 

 across the Gulf of Alaska to the Queen Charlotte Islands. The birds 

 then follow the coast line south to near the mouth of the Columbia 

 River, where the route swings toward the interior for a short 

 distance before continuing south by way of the Willamette River 

 Valley. The winter quarters of the cackling goose are chiefly in the 

 vicinity of Tule Lake, on the Oregon-California line, and in the 

 Sacramento Valley of California, although a few push on to the San 

 Joaquin Valley. 



A tributary of this "flyway" is followed by Ross' goose, which 

 breeds in the Perry River district south of Queen Maud Gulf and 

 other areas farther east on the central Arctic coast of Canada (Fig. 

 21). Its fall migration is southwest and south across the barren 

 grounds to Great Slave and Athabaska Lakes, where it joins 

 thousands of other waterfowl bound for winter homes along the 

 eastern coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. But when 

 Ross' geese have traveled south approximately to the northern 

 boundary of Montana, most of them separate from their companions 

 and turn southwest across the Rocky Mountains to winter in 

 California. In recent years a few Ross' geese have been found 

 wintering east of the Rocky Mountains along with flocks of lesser 

 snow geese and may be correlated with an eastward extension of 

 their breeding range. 



The southward route of those migratory landbirds of the Pacific 

 area that leave the United States in winter extends chiefly through 



76 



