THE TRAVELS OF BIRDS 



shore birds ^re migrating. When the pond was 

 full I had seen none of these birds. But the very 

 day that the pond became a field of mud, large 

 numbers of Sandpipers of several species stopped 

 to feast on the little aquatic animals which had 

 been left stranded. So we cannot always tell 

 what kind of birds may be traveling far over- 

 head in the sky, unless we have some way of 

 making them stop and call on us. 



When we follow some of the more famous 

 bird travelers in their journeys we shall become 

 familiar with the routes they travel. Now we 

 shall outline the routes of only those migrants 

 which leave the eastern United States in the 

 winter. 



One route leads southward and southwestward 

 into Texas and Mexico, Central and South 

 America. Another does not enter Texas and 

 Mexico at all, northwestern Florida being used 

 as the port from which many birds embark on 

 their seven-thousand-mile journey across the 

 Gulf of Mexico to Yucatan, whence Central 

 America is followed to South America. 

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