TIMES OF MIGRATION 33 



to leave in the fall, while the later arrivals are among the first depart- 

 ures. With this group should also be placed a small number of what 

 may be called Summer Visitants, composed of birds which, like the 

 Little Blue Heron and White Egrets, after breeding in more southern 

 latitudes may wander as far as several hundred miles northward. The 

 term Summer Visitant may also be applied to Shearwaters and Petrels, 

 which, having bred in the Southern Hemisphere during our winter, 

 pass the summer off our coasts. 



3. Transient Visitants. Includes species which, nesting north of 

 a given locality and wintering south of it, consequently pass through 

 it when migrating. Most transient visitants may be found at a certain 

 locality on both their spring and fall migrations, but a small number 

 occur at only one season. In the Mississippi Valley, for example, the 

 Golden Plover is found in the spring but much less frequently in the 

 fall; while on the Atlantic Coast the Black Tern appears during the 

 fall migration but is unknown in the spring. The earlier Transient 

 Visitants, for example the Fox Sparrow and Hermit Thrush, may 

 remain in the latitude of New York City for a month or more, but the 

 later arrivals pass by in a week or ten days. 



4. Winter Residents. Includes species which come to us in the fall 

 and remain until the spring. Some, like the Junco, are of regular occur- 

 rence. Others, like the Pine Grosbeak, may be abundant some winters 

 and rare or wanting other winters. To these four groups may be added 

 a fifth of birds of accidental occurrence. 



Let us now review the bird-life of the vicinity of New York City for 

 the year as it is affected by migration. I here abridge from "Bird-Life." 



January. Probably during no other month is there less movement 

 among our birds than in January. The regular winter residents have 

 come; the fall migrants, which may have lingered until December, 

 have gone, and the earliest spring migrants will not arrive before the 

 latter part of February or early March. January, in fact, is the only 

 month in the year in which as a rule some birds do not arrive or depart. 

 This rule, however, may be broken by such irregular birds as the Snowy 

 Owl, Pine Grosbeak, or Redpoll, which wander southward in search 

 of food. Food, indeed, is now the one concern of birds and their move- 

 ments are largely governed by its supply. Snow may fall and blizzards 

 rage, but so long as birds find sufficient to eat they apparently are not 

 affected by the weather. Where seed-bearing weeds are accessible there 

 we may look for Juncos and Tree Sparrows ; cedar trees bearing berries 

 often tempt Waxwings, Robins and Bluebirds to winter near them. 

 When bayberries are abundant we may expect Myrtle Warblers to 

 remain through the winter. I recall a sheltered pile of buckwheat 

 chaff at Englewood, N. J., which furnished food for a small flock of 

 Mourning Doves all one winter. In Central Park, New York City, a 

 Mockingbird, which had evidently escaped from a cage, was under 

 daily observation from October to January, and thrived during the 

 exceptionally severe winter while nourished by the berries of a privet 



