OUR GREATEST TRAVELERS 
Rico, and only 6 of these continue to the 
South American coast, and these last in 
such diminished numbers as to form an 
insignificant fraction of the winter visit- 
ants in that region. 
‘The explanation, of course, lies in the 
question of food. The combined area of 
all the West India islands east of Porto 
Rico is so small that it could not furnish 
subsistence for even one per cent of the 
myriads of birds which throng the main 
migration route across the Gulf. 
To the westward the short route, No. 
5, stretches a few hundred miles from 
the coast of Texas to northern Vera 
Cruz. It is adopted by a few Kentucky 
warblers, worm-eating warblers, golden- 
wing warblers, and some others, who 
seek in this way to avoid a slow journey 
by land across a region scantily supplied 
with moist woodlands. 
Still farther west, routes 6 and 7 rep- 
resent the land journeys of those birds 
from the western United States who 
winter in Mexico and Central America. 
Their trips are comparatively short; most 
of them are content to stop when they 
have reached the middle districts of 
Mexico, and only a few pass east of the 
southern part of that country. 
Route No. 1 remains to be noticed. It 
extends in an approximately north-and- 
south line from Nova Scotia to the 
Lesser Antilles and the northern coast 
of South America. Though more than 
a thousand miles shorter than the main 
migration route, it is not employed by 
any land bird. But it is a favorite fall 
route for thousands of water birds, and 
as such will be referred to again more in 
detail. 
It must not be considered that these 
routes as outlined on the map repre- 
sent distinctly segregated pathways with 
clearly defined borders. On the contrary, 
they are merely convenient subdivisions 
of the one great flightway which extends 
from North to South America. There is 
probably no single mile in the whole line 
between northern Mexico and the Lesser 
Antilles which is not crossed each fall by 
migrating birds. What is meant is that 
the great bulk of the birds, both as to 
species and number of individuals, cross 
MIGRATION ROUTE OF THE BLACK-POLL 
WARBLERS THAT NEST IN ALASKA 
This bird winters in South America along- 
side the cliff swallows, but in summer seems to 
try and get as far as possible from its winter 
neighbor. Note how its northward route di- 
verges from the northward flight of the cliff 
swallow, shown on the map on page 185. It 
travels at night, often flying several hundred 
miles in the darkness (see pages 184 and 193). 
the Gulf to eastern Mexico, while to the 
eastward their numbers steadily diminish. 
LIGHT-HOUSES LURE THOUSANDS OF BIRDS 
TO DESTRUCTION 
It is not to be supposed that these long 
flights over the waters can occur without 
many casualties, and not the smallest of 
the perils arises from the beacons which 
man has erected along the coast to insure 
his own safety. ‘“‘Last night I could have 
filled a mail-sack with the bodies of little 
warblers which killed themselves  strik- 
ing against my light,” wrote the keeper 
of Fowey Rocks light-house, in southern 
Florida. 
Nor was this an unusual tragedy. 
Every spring the lights along the coast 
lure to destruction myriads of birds that 
are en route from their winter homes in 
the South to their summer nesting places 
