TIMES OF MIGRATION 35 
It will be noticed that with but few exceptions the birds arriving in 
May are insectivorous; particularly those insect-eating birds which 
obtain their food from vegetation. Thus, no sooner are the unfolding 
leaves and opening blossoms exposed to the attack of insects than the 
Vireos and Warblers appear to protect them, and the abundance of 
these small birds is the distinctive feature of the bird-life of the month. 
June.—June is the home month of the year. Nest-building, egg- 
laying, incubating, and the care of the young now make constant 
and exceptional demands on the birds, which, in response, exhibit traits 
shown only during the nesting season. 
A feature of the month is the formation of roosts which are nightly 
frequented by the now fully grown young of such early-breeding birds 
as the Purple Grackle and Robin. When a second brood is reared, as 
with the Robin, the young may be accompanied to the roost by only 
the male parent, but in the one-brooded Grackle the roost is used by 
both adults and young. 
July—tThe full development of the bird’s year is reached in June, 
and as early as the first week in July there are evidences of a prepara- 
tion for the journey southward. The young of certain species which 
rear but one brood, accompanied by their parents, now wander about 
the country, and may be found in new localities. In some cases these 
families join others of their kind, forming small flocks, the nucleus 
of the great gatherings seen later. Examples are Grackles, Red-winged 
Blackbirds, Bobolinks, and Tree Swallows. The latter increase rapidly 
in number, and by July 10 we may see them, late each afternoon, 
flying to their roosts in the marshes. 
It is during this and the following month that the postbreeding 
northward wanderings of certain more southern birds, notably Herons, 
occur. 
August.—August is the month of molt, and when molting, birds are 
less in evidence than at any other time. What becomes of many of 
our birds in August it is difficult to say. Baltimore Orioles, for instance, 
are rare from the Ist to the 20th, but after that date are seen commonly. 
Possibly their apparent increase in numbers may in part be due to the 
fact that they have now in a measure regained their voices and often 
utter nearly their full song. However this may be, whether the seem- 
ing scarcity of birds in August is due to their silence and inactivity or 
to their actual departure, certain it is that before the fall migration 
brings arrivals daily from the north, one may spend hours in the woods 
and see little besides Wood Pewees and Red-eyed Vireos, whose abun- 
dance may also be attributed to the fact that they are still in song. 
After the middle of the month migrants from the north will be 
found in increasing numbers, but the characteristic bird-life of August 
will be found in the marshes. There the Swallows, Red-winged Black- 
birds and Bobolinks, known now as Reed-birds, come in increasing 
numbers to roost in the reeds, the last two with the Sora Rail attracted 
also by the ripening wild rice. 
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