ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND — 



OOLOGIST. 



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Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher, 



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VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1883. 



No. 6. 



Mississippi Valley Migration. 



The first wave of migration this Spring 

 has started, passed up the Mississippi Val- 

 ley and reached British America. Let us 

 trace and time its course. But first you 

 must have a map. Take any map which 

 has the whole Mississippi Valley on one 

 page and mark on it in ink the station 

 numbers which were given in the April 

 number of the O. and O. I have found 

 that the maps given in the front of a com- 

 mon railroad guide answer very well for 

 the purpose. If you have difiiculty in loca- 

 ting- any of the stations go to your post- 

 master, his postal guide will tell you the 

 county, which can then be found on any 

 ordinary school map. Now if you have 

 your prepared map at your elbow, we will 

 begin with the Robin, {31. rnigrc.toria,) 

 since this is a home bird, one that all can 

 observe and one for which all eagerly watch 

 as the first signs of Spring appear. 



During the Winter they were irregularly 

 scattered over nearly all the country from 

 the thirty-seventh parallel South, their 

 scarcity or abundance seeming to depend 

 on the food supply. No. (16) found them 

 quite plentiful near the Tennessee River, 

 at (26) only a few were seen ; some late 

 stragglers remained behind and were found 

 at (36), while, owing to a bountiful supply 

 of hackberries, countless numbers wintered 

 at (22), as many as 1,000 being seen in a 

 single mile. 



From these Winter abodes a few began 

 to pass slowly northward about the mid- 

 dle of February, reaching (32) on 2-9, and 

 (30) on 2-22 ; then in the last few days of 



February and the first days of March, 

 these few suddenly scattered over an im- 

 mense country. February 27 and 28 and 

 March 1 were days with warmer weather 

 and a south wind, and the robins evidently 

 thought Spring was coming. These enter- 

 prising ones appeared at (37) 2-25 at (39) 

 2-28, at (42) the same day. The next day 

 they turned up at (38), (40), (43) and a 

 single forlorn individual managed to reach 

 (52) ; by 3-3, one had been seen at Neenah, 

 Wis., but they seemed to pass by (33), as 

 the first one did not reach there until 

 3-6. No. (44) found them 3-5; (45)3-13. 

 Meanwhile (47) was wading through and 

 rejoicing over two feet of snow, and Mr. 

 Robin shunned him until 3 25, but greeted 

 (58) 3-5, .Avhile (60) did not see them until 

 nearly 4-1. I am sorry to say I have no 

 observer in the extreme north of Minne- 

 sota, but from what I learned of the move- 

 ments of the birds during three years resi- 

 dence there, I think it would take the first 

 birds from nine to twelve days to go from 

 (60) to the British line. Thus the birds 

 which started in the middle of February 

 took eight weeks to make the journey 

 which their powers of flight woTild have 

 easily enabled them to make in one. But 

 so far we have considered only the first 

 ones seen, which are almost always strag- 

 glers. The great army by no means keeps 

 up with these advance guards. This Spring 

 has been generally and thoroughly cold, 

 and even a& late as March 17th a cold snap 

 in Arkansas was sending the Robins back 

 in large numbers, though I suspect that 

 these reappearances of birds, supposed to 

 be gone, is to a large extent due to the 



