324 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



The impulse to migrate is so ingrained in the 

 birds with their evolution through the ages that 

 it is a matter of life and death with them. When 

 migration time comes in the fall, the birds of a 

 family begin flying around, uttering their tribal 

 call until large flocks of them gather. Then with 

 one accord, for the most part under cover of dark- 

 ness, they take wing and fly until they reach their 

 southern home. In some species, the males leave 

 first. Our ruby-throated hummingbird is accused 

 of deserting his nest while his young are quite 

 small, leaving the female to finish feeding them 

 and remain with them until they learn to fly and 

 care for themselves, and then make the long migra- 

 tion with them. This I doubt. I see ruby -throats 

 over my Oswego tea bed, during August, after the 

 young are as large as their parents. Sometimes, 

 for some reason, certain ones of a species remain 

 after the major part of their kind has migrated, 

 and sometimes they are found suffering and help- 

 less with cold, as in the case of a hummingbird 

 previously described. 



If it is true that birds act subconsciously, per- 

 forming the act of migration under an impulse they 

 are forced to follow, then we must admit that very 

 frequently they are driven to their death through 

 following a law of their nature. For example: 

 large flocks of several different kinds of birds chose 

 a cold, stormy night in 1881 to cross Lake Michi- 

 gan. They became chilled, confused by the icy 



