12 THE BIRDS OF RHODE ISLAND. 
I witnessed a flight past Sakonnet Point from ro a.™M. until 
4 P.M. of an immense number. In the spring the same occurs, 
but not with the regularity of former years. This spring, 
1899, on the 28th of April, I am told, a very large flight oc- 
curred, previous to which few birds had been seen.” 
The most interesting of the local bay migrations is that of the 
Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo and dilophus). During the fall 
and spring both the Common and Double-crested Cormorants 
migrate up and down the bay, chiefly by the Sakonnet River, 
from the “Cormorant Rocks” to the Kickamuit, Taunton and 
other rivers, where they feed. During the winter, after the 
Double-crested Cormorants have entirely or to a great extent left 
these waters, the Common Cormorant still follows this migra- 
tory movement, although to a less degree. Mr. Owen Durfee 
of Fall River writes us that this migration is affected by whether 
the herring are running in the Taunton River or not. 
LAND BirpDs. 
The land-bird migration is as peculiar, and of as much interest, 
as that of the water birds. The spring migration along the coast 
seems to turn in somewhere on the Connecticut coast, cutting 
across through Providence, to the vicinity of Boston, and thence 
northward and records for arrival at these three places follow 
in order. . The birds which breed in southern Rhode Island 
seem to work down as offshoots from this main migration, for 
arrival records for southern Rhode Island are invariably later than 
for Providence and vicinity. This is also known to be true of the 
migration at Fall River and Cape Cod region, which also seems 
to be cut off from the main migration route. There are also a 
number of local land migrations. The only one, however, worthy 
of note is that of the American Crow (Corvus americanus) which, 
like the Cormorant, during the winter months, feeds at low tide 
along the Kickamuit, Taunton and other rivers, and migrates at 
morning and evening through ‘the Mount Hope lands, over Bristol 
promontory and Prudence Island, to a roost in the Greenwich 
woods. 
The fall migration is so much more obscure and desultory, and 
