MIGRATION. II 



Scoters (Oidcmia deglandi} in May is the most pronounced and 

 interesting of the local outside movements. In The Auk, Vol. 

 VIII, No. 3, page 285, there is a careful account of this migra- 

 tion by Mr. George H. Mackay, from which we here quote. The 

 Scoters wintering in southern Cape Cod waters migrate " to the 

 westward as far as Noank, Connecticut," past Seaconnet, Point 

 Judith and Watch Hill, reaching the north, Mr. Mackay suggests, 

 by " Connecticut River and Lake Champlain or Hudson River 

 routes." This migration lasts from "three to seven days, accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather," starting " May 7, which is 

 unusually early; the customary time being from the i2th to the 

 i5th, and the latest the 25th." The flight consists of " appar- 

 ently all old birds," and in such fine adult plumage and of such 

 large size that the local gunners believe them to be of a different 

 species from the other less mature White-winged Scoters seen 

 throughout the winter, and have named them May White-wings 

 or Great May White-wings for this reason. Mr. Newton Dex- 

 ter writes of this flight, u ln May they gather in millions, I might 

 say, about Vineyard Sound, and farther east. About May iyth 

 if the conditions are right, fair weather, a clear sky to the west, 

 and a moderate southwest wind, the birds start, fly west along 

 the Rhode Island coast going higher and higher in the air as 

 they go west, and at or near Watch Hill go over the land and 

 take a northwest course for the Great Lakes." This flight 

 " begins about two hours before sunset, and on favorable occa- 

 sions several flocks are in sight all the time, from twenty to two 

 hundred in a flock. . . . Many leaders of flocks miss their bear- 

 ings and turn up into Narragansett Bay. They then follow up 

 to the head waters at the city of Providence, and follow a north- 

 west course from there. In Col. J. H. Powel's List he says "this 

 is the bird that comes from the east and flies to the west in 

 its spring migration in May, from the loth to the 2oth, and is 

 seen at no other time of year." 



Mr. Dexter writes of the general Scoter migration, "There are 

 seasons when circumstances of wind and weather are favorable 

 in both spring and fall migration (in April and October), when 

 the Scoters {Americana deglandi and perspicillata) pass very near 

 our shores in vast numbers. On the i6th of last October, 1898, 



