54 PROCEEDINGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



MIGRATION. 



Certain phases of bird migration in New Hampshire are per- 

 haps of sufficient interest to warrant a few remarks in addition 

 to the notes given under the several species in the following 

 list. 



The coastwise migration of many of the smaller land birds is 

 worthy of much further study. Mrs. Celia Thaxter ('70, p. 

 581, et seq.) has given a short account, written in her charming 

 way, of the land birds occurring during the migrations, at the 

 Isles of Shoals. Here, at some six or seven miles off the coast 

 of Rye, she writes that about the 27th of March "the islands 



are alive with song sparrows Robins and blackbirds 



Agelaiiis phceniceics'\ appear with the sparrows ; a few black- 

 birds build and remain ; the robins, finding no trees, flit across 

 to the mainland. Yellow-birds \^Dendi''oica csstiva'] and king- 

 birds occasionally build here, but very rarel}^ Bj^ the 



23rd of April come the first swallows, and flocks of mar- 

 tins \_Progtie sitbis~\^ golden- winged and downy woodpeckers, 

 the tiny ruby-crowned wren \_Regiihis calendula'] , and troops of 

 manj^ other kinds of birds ; kingfishers that perch on stranded 

 kellocks, little nuthatches that peck among the shingles for hid- 

 den spiders All these tarry onl}^ awhile in their passag*^ 



to the mainland. .... Now and then a bobolink pays us a fly- 

 ing visit, and, tilting on a blackberry spraj' , pours out his in- 

 toxicating song ; some morning is heard the fairy bugling of 

 an oriole ; a scarlet tanager honors the place with half a day's 

 sojourn." These migrants may very likely be cutting across 

 the curve of the coast to strike the Maine .shores farther north, 

 and in fall there seems to be a somewhat similar movement in 



