Bird - Lore 



migration a memorable one in our local 

 ornithological annals. — Harry C. Ober- 

 HOLSER, Biological Survey, Washington, 

 D. C. 



Oberlin Region. — All records were 

 broken for lateness and for the scattering 

 character of the migration for April and 

 May. There was a small movement — ten 

 species — on April 3 and 4. From the i6th 

 to the 22nd there were daily arrivals of 

 from three to five species, and from 

 then to the first of May they filtered 

 in one at a time, with three on the 2Sth 

 and 29th, and four on the 30th. On May 

 7 there were seventeen moving species. 

 On the 13th, 14th and isth, five, nine- 

 teen and eleven species respectively 

 were moving, and on the i6th, six. This 

 constituted the largest migration wave of 

 the season. From the i8th to the 22nd, 

 thirty-seven species were moving, with 

 scattering movements each day until the 

 29th, when twenty species moved, most 

 of them records of departure. Late 

 Warblers and Thrushes were recorded on 

 June 5. 



The most notable feature of this 

 season of migration was the mortality 



among the more strictly insectivorous 

 birds. The first Purple Martins came on 

 April 2. After about a week of fair weather 

 there came nearly a week of rain and cold 

 which caused the death of nearly all of 

 them. Many were picked up dead or dy- 

 ing on the ground beneath the houses, 

 others died within. All were hardly more 

 than skeletons. Another lot arrived on 

 the 14th and shared the same fate. Barn 

 and Tree Swallows came with this flight, 

 and while more of them survived, some 

 were starved to death. A third Martin 

 arrival occured on the 24th. Apparently 

 these were wiser, for their numbers 

 fluctuated with the weather. It appeared 

 that they returned southward for brief 

 periods during the unfavorable weather. 

 Among the smaller birds, the Yellow- 

 throated Vireo and Oven-bird seemed to 

 be the greatest sufferers; more were found 

 dead or dying from starvation than of any 

 other species. It is not possible to give 

 any reliable estimate of the extent of the 

 destruction of the smaller birds. All one 

 can say is that more dead birds were found 

 this spring than have been found in the 

 six previous years. — Lynds Jones, Oberlin, 

 Ohio. 



TOWHEE FEEDING YOUNG 

 Photographed by Avis Criss, Amsterdam, N. Y. 



