On the Migration of North American Birds. 91 



abundant, that in the month of February five or six can be counted 

 in particular situations, near our city, in a single day, and their sweet 

 notes form a considerable addition to the concerts of our feathered 

 choir. The orange crowned warbler, {Sylvia celata, Say,) so long 

 confined to the far west and the orange groves of Florida, has be-^ 

 come equally common in our immediate neighborhood. The pec- 

 toral sandpiper, {P elidna pectoraUs, Say,) and the long-legged sand- 

 piper,* {Tringa himantopus, Bonap.) which were formerly so ex- 

 ceedingly rare, that Wilson knew nothing of their existence, are now 

 found every summer, in small numbers, along our sea coast. It may 

 not be unworthy of remark, in this place, and in confirmation of the 

 views now advanced, that no less than eight or nine species of birds, 

 either wholly undescribed or not previously known to exist in the 

 United States, have recently been discovered in the neighborhood 

 of this city. A few of these may have long existed in the country, 

 and escaped the researches of former naturalists, but I am under an 

 impression that some may have but recently come among us.f From 

 these facts, we may easily perceive, that after all the additions that 

 have been made to our American ornithology, by Wilson, Bonaparte, 

 Cooper, Nuttall, Richardson, and especially the indefatigable Audu- 

 bon, the field still remains open to the investigation of the student of 

 nature, and promises a rich reward. 



There is one singularity in the migration of American birds that 

 is as yet involved in some obscurity. A vast number of northern 

 warblers and fly catchers do not pass over the low countries of Car- 

 olina in their migrations and the closest observers have not been 

 able to find a single specimen of many species that are abundant in 

 the north, and that all migrate southerly in autumn. It is possi- 

 ble that migratory birds pass southerly in two immense channels, one 

 leading from Hatteras, or some of our capes a little farther south, 

 and then across the gulf of Mexico to the West India Islands where, 

 they spend the period of our winter in immense numbers. They 



* From specimens, in various stages of plumage, which I possess, of the long 

 legged sandpiper, I am disposed to believe, that Swainson and Richardson, in 

 their Fauna Boreali-Americana, have been deceived bj' the variations in the plu- 

 mage and size to which this bird is subject, and have described it three times un- 

 der the names of Tringa himantopus^, T. Audubonii, and T. Douglassii. 



t Some of these birds have since been figured and described by Audubon, under 

 the following names: Muscicapa dominicensis, Briss. Parus Carolinensis, Aud. 

 Fringilla Bachvianii, Aud. Fringilla Macgillivraii, And. Sylvia Swainsonii, 

 Aud. Sylvia Bachvianii, Aud. Rallus elegans, Aud. 



