Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 18 



tion; it is only the prelude to it. Such common roosts 

 are the starting points for those thousands, and are the 

 resting stations for many more thousands which pass 

 through in the last week of August and in September. 



Our birds became peculiarly excited and mysteriously 

 restless after August 12. After an interval of several 

 weeks, the old birds began at this day to visit their boxes 

 again, hung around them for half hours, not with merry 

 carols as in early summer, but for the purpose of giving 

 a last look at the scenes of fonner happiness. 



August 20 and 21 were stormy, followed by a north 

 wind period with several cool nights. The tactics of the 

 great army were now changed. Migration began. After 

 the 24th the gatherings on this side of the river ceased, 

 our St. Louis Martins had left, and to the St. Louis man 

 the Martins had become very scarce. Not so to the 

 initiated, and if you come along with me across the Mis- 

 sissippi, I will show you more Martins than one can 

 otherwise see in a lifetime. 



It is August 24, 6 P. M. Only a few Martins are seen 

 on this side of the river going east. We take a skiff and 

 follow them. After ten minutes' rowing we approach 

 the opposite shore. What is that! Hundreds and hun- 

 dreds of birds sailing low, above the water, hundreds of 

 silvery splashes flashing up from the now dark waters 

 of the great river. What a strange sight ! The Martins 

 are taking their bath. Now we are on the sandbar of the 

 Illinois side, opposite the southern part of St. Louis, just 

 north of Arsenal Island. It is a large tract of fine river 

 sand, newly formed, almost quite dry and free from vege- 

 tation, except a strip along the willow thickets which 

 border it on the east. It is 6 :30. Since we have arrived 

 the air all around us has filled up with Martins, pouring 

 in from all directions, high up and low above the water, 

 all going toward the one place — the outer rim of the sand- 

 "bar, where on a few acres of sand ten thousand Martins 



