MIGRATION. 



The migration of birds in Rhode Island is of such a peculiar 

 nature that it seems worthy of especial attention. 



WATER BIRDS. 



The migration of water birds (Pygopodes^ Longipennes, Tubi- 

 nares, Steganopodes , Anseres, and Limicohe} along the Rhode Island 

 coast is very much less pronounced than would be supposed. 

 The main line of migration going north and south, seems to be 

 to a great extent, off the coast a number of miles. From Watch 

 Hill to Point Judith and at Sakonnet Point the greatest migra- 

 tion movement is apparent, and yet, even at these points, the 

 most exposed to the ocean of any portion of Rhode Island, save 

 Block Island, the main line of migration still seems to be further 

 seaward. The centre of the migration flight apparently passes 

 just off, and along the ocean coast of Long Island, past Block 

 Island, to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket waters. Only the 

 edge of this migration, and a smaller migration that passes 

 through Long Island Sound, up Buzzard's Bay and across Cape 

 Cod, brings birds by the coast of Rhode Island. Therefore 

 many species of water birds which are common at Long Island, 

 Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, are uncommon on the Rhode 

 Island coast. Few birds land on Block Island, and the move- 

 ment there is so strictly a direct migratory one that it cannot be 

 compared, as a point of observation, with the above named larger 

 islands. 



There is but little migratory movement in Narragansett Bay 

 it being chiefly used by species as a locality in which to rest, or 

 in which to remain for certain seasons. There are, however, a 

 few quite marked local migratory movements both along the 

 coast and in the bay. The westward migration of White-winged 



