MIGRATION. 
The migration of birds in Rhode Island is of such a peculiar 
nature that it seems worthy of especial attention. 
WATER BIRDS. 
The migration of water birds (Pygofodes, Longipennes, Tubi- 
nares, Steganopodes, Anseres, and Limicolw) along the Rhode Island 
coast is very much less pronounced than would be supposed. 
The main line of migration going north and south, seems to be 
to a great extent, off the coast a number of miles. From Watch 
Hill to Point Judith and at Sakonnet Point the greatest migra- 
tion movement is apparent, and yet, even at these points, the 
most exposed to the ocean of any portion of Rhode Island, save 
Block Island, the main line of migration still seems to be further 
seaward. The centre of the migration flight apparently passes 
just off, and along the ocean coast of Long Island, past Block 
Island, to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket waters. Only the 
edge of this migration, and a smaller migration that passes 
through Long Island Sound, up Buzzard’s Bay and across Cape 
Cod, brings birds by the coast of Rhode Island. Therefore 
many species of water birds which are common at Long Island, 
Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, are uncommon on the Rhode 
Island coast. Few birds land on Block Island, and the move- 
ment there is so strictly a direct migratory one that it cannot be 
compared, as a point of observation, with the above named larger 
islands. 
There is but little migratory movement in Narragansett Bay 
it being chiefly used by species as a locality in which to rest, or 
in which to remain for certain seasons. ‘There are, however, a 
few quite marked local migratory movements both along the 
coast and in the bay. The westward migration of White-winged 
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