On the Migration of North American Birds. 93 



quently three hundred and forty two species are pecuhar to our own 

 continent. The land birds that visit both continents are composed 

 of Eagles, Hawks, Owls, and most of the genus corvus, and a few 

 other species possessing great strength of wing, and warmth of cov- 

 ering, enabling them to migrate with ease, and to bear the rigors of 

 the polar regions. The water birds are either composed of Ducks, 

 which breeding far north, are enabled to reach the regions of Nor- 

 way and Russia, and visit the shores of Europe, or they are of the 

 Gull, Tern, and Petrel, species which find sustenance every where 

 on the bosom of the ocean, and may therefore, with great facility, nav- 

 igate the widest seas. Still, it will be observed, that the number of 

 birds that migrate from one continent to another, is very small, and 

 I am under an impression, that these migrations take place but sel- 

 dom. Such is also the case with our animals of which very few are 

 found on the eastern continent. In fact, our whole kingdom of na- 

 ture not even excepting the insects and plants, presents peculiarities 

 which well entitle it to the name given it, by its first discoverers of 

 " the new World." 



Whether many of our migratory birds th.at leave us early in the 

 season, may not pass beyond the tropics, and retire to latitudes in 

 the southern hemisphere, of the same temperature with that which 

 they left, is a subject that remains for the investigation of future nat- 

 uralists. Why may they not take advantage of the reversion of the 

 seasons, and rear a second brood in South America ? The purple 

 martin which is found in our whole country during summer as far as 

 the 60th degree North latitude, is known to breed in South Ameri- 

 ca during our season of winter, and this is also the case with several 

 of our rarest sylvias. Even admitting that our birds do not migrate 

 to the southern hemisphere, it is probable that some of the species, 

 may breed in two distinct portions of North America. The stork, 

 after it leaves Europe, is known to raise another brood in Africa. 

 Audubon found the white headed Eagles, {Falco leucoccphalus,) and 

 the Fish Hawk, {F. Halicctos,) having nests with their young full 

 fledged and able to fly in the month of November in Florida. The 

 Barn Owl, (Strix flammea,) sometimes lays its eggs in the unoccu- 

 pied buildings of this city in November, and I last year had a youn^ 

 bird, of the great horned Owl, [St7-ix mrginiana,) sent me on the 

 3d of December, which had been taken from a nest in this vicinity. 

 Now this is a season when our northern countries are blocked up 

 in frost aud snow, and it is not improbable that many of these birds, 



