ORNITHOLOGIST 



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 Annum. 



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OOLOGIST. 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1ST5. 



Single Copy 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. IX. 



PAWTUCKET, R. I., JANUARY, 1884. 



No. 



Migration in the Mississippi Valley. 



Last Spring a number of ornithologists 

 made observations on the arrival of the 

 birds. By combining their notes, we are 

 enabled to trace and time the movements 

 of the birds from the Gulf of Mexico, 

 nearly to British America. It is to be re- 

 gretted that among the thirty to forty ob- 

 servers, so small a number were from the 

 Southern States ; and it is hoped that in 

 the observations of next Spring, which are 

 to include not only the Mississippi Valley, 

 but the whole United States and Canada, 

 the South will be ably represented. 



Notes on over three hundred species 

 were sent me by the different observers, 

 and from them I will select a few to show 

 the character of the work. 



"We will begin with the Kingbird {Ty- 

 rannus carolinensis.) This well-known 

 bird almost entirely deserts the United 

 States during the Winter, a few remaining 

 in the Southern States. But although it 

 scatters in Summer all over the Mississip- 

 pi Valley and far into British America, it 

 is one'- of the late migrants. Mr. T. S. 

 Ward, at Canton, Miss., saw the first one 

 March 10. Farther west, at Waxahachie, 

 Texas, they did not come until much later. 

 It is in general true, as shown by several 

 hundred observations, that the migration 

 across the plains averages from four days 

 to a week later than at places in the same 

 latitude nearer the Mississippi, and in a 

 timbered country. 



Starting now from Canton, Miss., which 

 is in latitude 32 deg., it took the King- 



bird thirty-eight days to reach Anna, 111., 

 directly north in lat. 37£ deg., or an aver- 

 age of ten miles a day. The next day 

 found them a degree farther north at St. 

 Louis. The next degree to Griggsville, 

 111, was made in six days, and four days 

 later, on April 28, they had passed to 

 Liter, 111, in lat. 40 deg. In the mean- 

 while a single straggler had been seen on 

 April 10, at Osceola, 111., lat. 41 deg. ; but 

 the regular migration was much later and 

 the birds reached Jefferson, Wis., lat. 43 

 deg., on May 6, and the next day appeared 

 at Hastings, Minn., lat. 45 deg. "We see 

 then that from lat. 32 deg. to 37£ deg. the 

 rate of migration was 10 miles per day; 

 from 37| deg. to 40 deg., 16 miles; and 

 from 40 deg. to 45 deg., nearly 40 miles 

 per day. This sudden increase of speed 

 may possibly, if not probably, be account- 

 ed for by studying the weather record for 

 the first few days of May. The Signal 

 Service Beports show that from April 29 

 to May 4, there were almost continuous 

 warm south winds in the upper part of 

 the Mississippi Valley, with slight warm 

 rains. The records of other birds show 

 that these same days were days of great 

 onward movements all along the line. 

 The stations north of Hastings omitted 

 the date of arrival of the Kingbird, but 

 at the same rate of travel, the foremost 

 ones would reach British America about 

 May 15. 



It is usually true that migration is most 

 rapid toward the northern part of its 

 course ; and we may suppose that this 

 fact is the result of the other fact that the 



Copyright, 1834, by Fraxk B. Webster and Eatos Cliff. 



