MIGRATION OF WARBLERS 



17 



Warblers observed off the eastern coast of Andros Island, Bahamas, 

 April 26-28, 1884, which lasted three days. Thousands of birds were 

 seen and none of them flew more than twenty feet above the water. 

 This observation is confirmed by Chapman (jBird-Lore, VII, 1905, 

 140) who writes: 



"While sailing from Miami, Florida, directly east across the Gulf 

 stream to the Bahamas, in May, 1904, I observed three small bodies 

 of migrating Warblers flying toward Florida. The birds were not 

 so high in the air as we might have expected them to be, but were 

 flying low, within a few feet of the water. 



"The first group of six or seven birds, among them a Redstart, was 

 seen about 6 a. m., May 10, when we were some six miles from land, 

 which was still, of course, plainly visible. Later in the day, when we 

 were about midway between the Florida coast and the Biminis, the 

 nearest Bahaman land, a compact flock of seventy five to one hundred 

 Warblers passed us, flying slightly north of west. The birds were 

 not more than ten feet above the water and were evidently not guided 

 by sight in their choice of direction. 



"On the morning of May 11, as we approached the Bahaman 

 banks, between the Biminis and Great Isaacs, a third group of War- 

 blers was seen, and they, like the two preceding, were flying toward 

 Florida within a few feet of the water." 



Warblers make the long five hundred mile flight across the Gulf 

 of Mexico from choice, since, if they desired, they could cross from 

 Florida to Cuba and from Cuba to Yucatan without being out of 

 sight of land. So far as now known, no Wirbler uses this route in 

 migration, preferring the straight course ov.er the Gulf. It seems 

 probable that even this five hundred mile flight is not severely 

 exhaustive to the average bird as there are good reasons for believing 

 that after crossing the Gulf of Mexico in the spring, many Warblers 

 do not descend to earth as soon as they sight the coast, but continue 

 inland many miles before alighting. 



The farther north a Warbler goes the faster it migrates. The 

 BlackpoU Warblers that nest in Alaska occupy a month in the 

 thousand-mile trip from Florida to southern Minnesota, or an average 

 of about thirty-five miles per day; while these same birds make the 

 last part of their journey, 2,500 miles to Alaska, in not over two 

 weeks, or at an average speed of at least two hundred miles per day. 

 When Warblers are feeding in the daytime during the migration 

 season they are continually on the move and their general direction 

 is toward their summer home. This movement is not rapid, a person 



