THE TRAVELS OF BIRDS 



the Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Bobolink, 

 and Water-Thrush are sometimes found during 

 the fall migrations. 



The course of these smaller birds after leav- 

 ing the Bermudas is unknown to us. Possibly 

 they may head due south for Porto Rico, or they 

 may go southwest toward the Bahamas. 



I have wondered whether it was a flight of 

 birds from the Bermudas to the Bahamas that 

 Columbus so fortunately saw when his discour- 

 aged sailors were about to mutiny if he would 

 not turn back home. On October 3 of that event- 

 ful year Columbus records that they were utter- 

 ing "murmurs and menaces," but on the follow- 

 ing day they were visited, he writes, "by such 

 flights of birds, and the various indications of 

 land became so numerous, that from a state of 

 despondency they passed to one of confident ex- 

 pectation." 



Finally, on October 7, birds became so 



abundant, all flying toward the southwest, that 



Columbus changed his course to follow them. 



So we see that it was due to the migration of 



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