114 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



were reared in the many pendent nests in the elms and 

 willows ? Unlike the chats and indigo birds, the orioles 

 do not all depart from the land ; but, congregating in 

 loose flocks, they associate intimately with the reed-birds, 

 that are now gathering by the thousands in the uplands, 

 preparatory to seeking the reeds on the river shore. 

 Here the orioles will remain until the second or third 

 sharp frost. Again, those very unlike birds, the king- 

 bird and blue-bird, will together form loose flocks and 

 congregate in the meadows. This is the more difficult to 

 understand as the king-bird is strictly migratory, while 

 the blue-bird is only partly so ; and I am positive that 

 the flocks of the two species that haunt the meadows un- 

 til October are broken up at last by the king-birds pass- 

 ing southward and the vast majority of the blue-birds 

 returning to the uplands, where they remain the winter 

 through, seeking shelter from the more violent storms in 

 the dense foliage of our common cedar. 



These changes of habit, comparing May and June 

 with August and September, have doubtless been brought 

 about by the all-important question of food-supply, and 

 in the instance of the birds last mentioned, may be looked 

 upon as the first step in the return migratory movement, 

 especially as it is a change from higher and cooler up- 

 lands to the low-lying and warmer shores of the south- 

 ward-flowing river, from near the mouth of which these 

 birds make an easy overland journey to the valley beyond. 

 In this way, long before winter sets in in the New Eng- 

 land and Middle States, many of our spring birds have 

 completed their return journey home for home it is to 

 them when they near the tropics or enter them. 



If we consider the several circumstances that would 

 necessarily influence migratory movements, this actual 

 irregularity in autumn is just what might be expected. 



