13 



assist in luring many individuals to 

 their death. 



Migration is strikingly characteristic 

 in many groups. The movement of the 

 mghthawk is one quite in harmony with 

 the individuality of the bird. As the 

 fall advances large flocks may be seen 

 careering about high in the air, darting 

 hither and thither without seemingly any 

 particular body movement, but if you 

 watch them for an hour or so you will 

 observe that the body movement of the 

 fleck has a decidedly southern tendency, 

 and in the course of a few hours they 

 will have completely disappeared, to be 

 seen no more for another season. 



Some of our smaller species like the 

 warblers, kinglet, nuthatches and wrens, 

 unable to withstand the strain of pro- ( 

 longed flight or the break in the food 

 supply, perform the entire migration, 

 flitting from bush to bush and tree to 

 tree, feeding as they travel, resting 

 usually wherever night overtakes them, 

 and in this manner they can cover the 

 required distance in about the same time 

 required by night flyers, which occupy 

 the days feeding and resting. 



The last class we will consider are the 

 erratics or eccentrics which seem to 

 have neither reason nor season for mi- 

 grating, and one would suppose for 

 breeding. Of this class the crossbill, 

 pine siskin and Bohemian waxwing are 

 conspicuous. 



Authorities tell us that the American 

 crossbill breeds in February, yet I have 

 records of collections of birds apparent- 

 ly migrants and far from favorable 

 breeding grounds from January till 

 December and have found none I could 

 call birds of the year. I recognized no 

 evidence of mating and the birds always 

 possessed the same erratic tendencies. 

 About Toronto I have collected cross- 

 bills from November till May about the 

 parks and private grounds, while in 

 Manitoba I have collected them from 

 May till November, roving about the 

 pcplar bluffs feeding on buds and insect 

 galls. 



With the pine siskin I have in Ontario 

 collected the birds from November until 

 Time moving about in flocks with no ap- 

 pearance of mating or nesting. In Man- 

 itoba I have collected them with trap 

 and gun from April till October roving 

 about the fields and even in the town 

 streets in very large flocks. Their nest- 

 ing sites are given as the coniferous for- 

 ests and the season April and May. 



I would not say that the Bohemian 

 waxwing does not nest with certain re- 



gularity, but if such be the case he is 

 only regular at home. He has for many 

 winters, however, absented himself en- 

 tirely from us, irrespective of severity of 

 temperature or amount of snow, which 

 regulates the movement of some winter 

 migrants and has suddenly appeared in 

 large numbers in October and remained 

 with us till late in April though weather 

 conditions were normal. So far as we 

 know him he is a true Bohemian. 



ECONOMIC RELATIONS. 



In presenting to the public the claims 

 of any form of life to our protection, 

 when the sentimental, aesthetic and 

 every other argument availeth nothing, 

 vve can cause the most matter-of-fact to 

 prick lip their mercenary ears and be- 

 come interested when we approach their 

 relations to the pocket. Were all other 

 claims of the subject in question set 

 aside, the relation of our insectivorous 

 birds to our vulgar selves from the 

 standpoint of dollars and cents is more 

 than sufficient to guarantee our every 

 effort in their behalf. 



While all forms according to nature's 

 law are necessary to maintain a balance 

 in nature, there are some forms the in- 

 crease of which will greatly hamper our 

 agricultural interests, while the abnorm- 

 al increase of any form is sure to become 

 injurious. With our insectivorous birds 

 there is little danger of any abnormal 

 increase because their natural enemies 

 are sufficiently numerous to keep their 

 increase normal and it remains to re- 

 gulate their greatest enemy — man, so 

 Lhat this natural increase be not reduced, 

 as at such a stage they occupy a very 

 important position in relation to agri- 

 culture and horticulture. 



With all the species represented in the 

 four orders in question insects form a 

 large proportion of the total food of the 

 nestling, while the greater number re- 

 quire an almost entire insect diet even 

 in the adult. In other species the addi- 

 tional food consists of large quantities 

 of noxious weed seeds, and it is in com- 

 paratively few cases that the birds can 

 be really considered injurious. Insect 

 feeding birds capture all classes of in- 

 sects, but the great majority of insect 

 life as revealed by stomach examination 

 proves to be of the most injurious char- 

 acter. Beneficial insects are generally 

 either very large and aquatic or possess- 

 ed of weapons of defence, as in the hy- 

 menoptera, or of pungent or distasteful 

 odors as in many of the scarabidae or 



