Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 27 



abundance of food for them. Few insectivorous birds 

 winter in the United States, but many species go deep 

 into South America to Brazil and Peru. Some nesting 

 in the northern United States winter in the Gulf States, 

 and many Canadian birds find our climate not too severe 

 for their winter quarters. Birds that have the longest 

 journey to travel start earliest. Some birds bom in high 

 altitudes arrive in the United States as early as July. 

 Nineteen species of shore birds breed north of the Arctic 

 Circle, and everyone of them visits South America in 

 winter; six of them go to Patagonia, a route of 3,000 

 miles. But the Arctic Tern beats them all; it nests as 

 far north as the bird can find land to make its nest. When 

 the young are grown the family leaves the Arctic and a 

 few months later they are found skirting the edge of the 

 Antarctic Continent, 11,000 miles away. Of land birds 

 the Nighthawk has the largest route, 7,000 miles from 

 Yukon to Argentina. 



While it has been proved that regular migrants, the 

 real birds of passage, have their fixed winter quarters, 

 to which they return every year, there is another kind of 

 migration which we may call nomadic migration. This is 

 most prevalent in cold regions, but is found over most of 

 North America. To this class of migrants with no set- 

 tled or definite winter home belong the Pine Grosbeaks, 

 the Crossbills, Redpolls, Snow Buntings, Shore Larks 

 and many others. 



As the nomad wanders to and fro, pitching his camp 

 here one day, miles away the next, so do these vagrant 

 birds pass the non-breeding season in quest of food. All 

 of these species are gregarious, are fond of each other's 

 company, some wandering in troops, others in large 

 flocks. It is this sociability which forces them to move 

 constantly from one place to another to find all the food 

 they need. So long as food can be obtained in sufficient 

 quantity some species show a reluctance to leave their 



