The Migration of North American Sparrows 



NINTH PAPER 

 Compiled by Professor W. W. Cooke, Chiefly from Data in the Biological Survey 



With Drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 

 (See frontispiece) 



DICKCISSEL 



One of the strangest, and, thus far, unexplained facts in ornithology is the 

 almost complete disappearance of the Dickcissel from those parts of the 

 United States east of the Allegheny Mountains, where, previous to i860, 

 it had been a common summer resident. Wintering in Panama and northern 

 South America, it passes through Central America and across the Gulf of 

 Mexico to its present summer home in the Mississippi Valley, where it breeds 

 from southern Mississippi and southern Texas, north to southern Ontario 

 and North Dakota. It is one of the latest and, therefore, one of the most 

 rapid of migrants, reaching central Iowa on the average, thirteen days after 

 it appears at the mouth of the Mississippi, — an average speed of nearly a 

 hundred miles a day. 



SPRING MIGRATION 



PLACE 



Swan Island, Honduras 



Key West, Fla 



Northern Florida 



New Orleans, La. (near) 



St. Louis, Mo 



Quincy, 111 



Odin, 111 



Indianola, Iowa 



Fairfield, la 



Des Moines, la. (near) 



Grinnell, la 



Sabula, la 



Siou City, la 



Bloomington, Ind 



Brookville, Ind 



Columbus, O 



Oberlin, O 



Chicago, 111 



Hidalgo, Tex 



Corpus Christi, Tex 



San Antonio, Tex 



Gainesville, Tex 



Ottawa, Kan. (near.) 



Manhattan, Kan 



Onaga, Kan 



Dunbar, Neb 



Badger, Neb 



Harrison, S. D. (near) 



Heron Lake, Minn 



Meridian, Wis 



Portage la Prairie, Manitoba 



Number 



of years' 



record 



Average date of 



Earliest date of 



spring arrival 



spring arrival 







March 25, 1887 







April 30, 1889 



2 



April 25 



April 22, i88r 



4 



April 21 



April 6, 1894 



6 



April 24 



April 17, 1888. 



3 



April 25 



April 19, 1889 



9 



April 28 



April 22, 1894 



6 



April 30 



April 26, 1899 



12 



April 30 



April 26, 1900 



10 



May I 



April 25, 1885 



6 



May I 



April 24, 1886 



7 



May 4 



May I, 1892 



5 



Mav 5 



May 2, 1905 



7 



May I 



April 23, 1886 



8 



May 6 



April 19, 1887 



4 



May 8 



May 2, 1889 





May 8 



May 6, 1896 



9 



May 8 



May 3, 1895 

 March 27, 1877 



2 



April 12 



April II, 1903 



12 



April 18 



April 13, 1904 



5 



April 20 



April 15, 1884 



4 



April 27 



April 26, 1903 



5 



April 27 



April 22, 1882 



15 



April 30 



April 23, 1 89 1 



10 



May I 



April 24, 1904 



3 



May 7 



May 5, 1901 



4 



May 20 



May II, 1910 



3 



May 16 



May 14, 1886 

 May 19, 1897 

 June 14, 1897 



(83) 



