12 THE BIRDS OF RHODE ISLAND. 



I witnessed a flight past Sakonnet Point from lo a. m. until 

 4 p. M. of an immense number. In the spring the same occurs, 

 but not with tlie regularity of former years. This spring, 

 1899, °" ths ^^^^ °f April, I am told, a very large flight oc- 

 curred, previous to which few birds had been seen." 



The most interesting of the local bay migrations is that of the 

 Cormorants {Phalacrocorax carbo and dilophiis). During the fall 

 and spring both the Common and Double-crested Cormorants 

 migrate up and down the bay, chiefly by the Sakonnet River, 

 from the " Cormorant Rocks " to the Kickamuit, Taunton and 

 other rivers, where they feed. During the winter, after the 

 Double-crested Cormorants have entirely or to a great extent left 

 these waters, the Common Cormorant still follows this migra- 

 tory movement, although to a less degree. Mr. Owen Durfee 

 of Fall River writes us that this migration is affected by whether 

 the herring are running in the Taunton River or not. 



Land Birds. 



The land-bird migration is as peculiar, and of as much interest, 

 as that of the water birds. The spring migration along the coast 

 seems to turn in somewhere on the Connecticut coast, cutting 

 across through Providence, to the vicinity of Boston, and thence 

 northward and records for arrival at these three places follow 

 in order. The birds which breed in southern Rhode Island 

 seem to work down as offshoots from this main migration, for 

 arrival records for southern Rhode Island are invariably later than 

 for Providence and vicinity. This is also known to be true of the 

 migration at Fall River and Cape Cod region, which also seems 

 to be cut off from the main migration route. There are also a 

 number of local land migrations. The only one, however, worthy 

 of note is that of the American Crow {Corvics americanus) which, 

 like the Cormorant, during the winter months, feeds at low tide 

 along the Kickamuit, Taunton and other rivers, and migrates at 

 morning and evening through the Mount Hope lands, over Bristol 

 promontory and Prudence Island, to a roost in the Greenwich 

 woods. 



The fall migration is so much more obscure and desultory, and 



