OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 37 



northern limits. But the most interesting facts relating to the 

 subject were brought forward to show the great destruction which 

 takes place among the birds by flying against the lighthouses. It is 

 known that migrations take place mostly during the night, the day 

 being spent seeking rest and refreshment. The smaller birds do not 

 like to cross the lakes, but are found in great numbers flitting along 

 the shores, or following the course of the larger rivers, the 

 Mississippi valley in this way becoming the great highway of the 

 travellers during the season of migration. By looking at the map 

 of the State of Michigan it will be observed that northern bound 

 birds entering that State from the south, find themselves hemmed in 

 between lakes Huron and Michigan, and naturally gather into a 

 cul lie sac to cross at the straits of Mackinac, which they no doubt 

 do in vast numbers. " In Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the 

 straits, and midway between the shores, lies Spectacle Reef, on which 

 is erected a lighthouse eighty-six feet above the water level. The 

 light is of the second order, and shows alternately a red and white 

 flash every 29 seconds, which is seen in clear weather at a distance 

 of sixteen and a half miles. The lighthouse is surrounded by a 

 wooden platform 85 feet square. The keeper of the light, Mr. 

 William Marshall, has been there seven years, and states that during 

 the season of migration on misty and rainy nights large numbers of 

 birds strike and are killed. On one morning he picked one hundred 

 and fifty on the pier surrounding the tower, and thinks that ten 

 times that number fall outside the platform into the water. A 

 package of these which were forwarded for identification, showed 

 them to be such birds as we are accustomed to see passing north 

 during the spring. A similar report furnished by the keeper of the 

 lighthouse at Sombrera Key, Florida Reefs, shows that as many as 

 200 sometimes strike during one night." The circulars of instruc- 

 tions and tabular forms are again in the hands of observers for the 

 spring work of 1885, and farther south many entries have no doubt 

 already been made. Profiting by the experience of last year, the 

 work has now been better systematized, and more information will 

 be gained with less trouble. In the course of a year or two we will 

 no doubt be able to say where all the species spend the winter, 

 when they leave their winter quarters for the north, at what rate they 

 travel, and how far north they go ; but whether we will find out 

 what excites within the birds the desire to migrate, and how they 



