TIMES OF MIGRATION 35 



It will be noticed that with but few exceptions the birds arriving in 

 May are insectivorous; particularly those insect-eating birds which 

 obtain their food from vegetation. Thus, no sooner are the unfolding 

 leaves and opening blossoms exposed to the attack of insects than the 

 Vireos and Warblers appear to protect them, and the abundance of 

 these small birds is the distinctive feature of the bird-life of the month. 



June. June is the home month of the year. Nest-building, egg- 

 laying, incubating, and the care of the young now make constant 

 and exceptional demands on the birds, which, in response, exhibit traits 

 shown only during the nesting season. 



A feature of the month is the formation of roosts which are nightly 

 frequented by the now fully grown young of such early-breeding birds 

 as the Purple Grackle and Robin. When a second brood is reared, as 

 with the Robin, the young may be accompanied to the roost by only 

 the male parent, but in the one-brooded Grackle the roost is used by 

 both adults and young. 



July. The full development of the bird's year is reached in June, 

 and as early as the first week in July there are evidences of a prepara- 

 tion for the journey southward. The young of certain species which 

 rear but one brood, accompanied by their parents, now wander about 

 the country, and may be found in new localities. In some cases these 

 families join others of their kind, forming small flocks, the nucleus 

 of the great gatherings seen later. Examples are Crackles, Red-winged 

 Blackbirds, Bobolinks, and Tree Swallows. The latter increase rapidly 

 in number, and by July 10 we may see them, late each afternoon, 

 flying to their roosts in the marshes. 



It is during this and the following month that the postbreeding 

 northward wanderings of certain more southern birds, notably Herons, 

 occur. 



August. August is the month of molt, and when molting, birds are 

 less in evidence than at any other time. What becomes of many of 

 our birds in August it is difficult to say. Baltimore Orioles, for instance, 

 are rare from the 1st to the 20th, but after that date are seen commonly. 

 Possibly their apparent increase in numbers may in part be due to the 

 fact that they have now in a measure regained their voices and often 

 utter nearly their full song. However this may be, whether the seem- 

 ing scarcity of birds in August is due to their silence and inactivity or 

 to their actual departure, certain it is that before the fall migration 

 brings arrivals daily from the north, one may spend hours in the woods 

 and see little besides Wood Pewees and Red-eyed Vireos, whose abun- 

 dance may also be attributed to the fact that they are still in song. 



After the middle of the month migrants from the north will be 

 found in increasing numbers, but the characteristic bird-life of August 

 will be found in the marshes. There the Swallows, Red-winged Black- 

 birds and Bobolinks, known now as Reed-birds, come in increasing 

 numbers to roost in the reeds, the last two with the Sora Rail attracted 

 also by the ripening wild rice. 

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