THE OOLOGIST. 



153 



birds. The effects are readily ob- 

 served and we find the destruction to 

 be vast. There is another danger 

 which is not generally considered, but 

 which is, I believe greater than elec- 

 tric wires of the cities. I refer to the 

 wires which are stretched all over our 

 land. The lights though destructive 

 are only occasional, when the whole 

 territory is considered and are only 

 especially destructive when large mig- 

 rating waves pass upon murky nights, 

 whereas the wires are to be found every- 

 where throughout our broad land and 

 in a perfect net work. 

 Take the Rails for instance and other 

 species which fly low in migrating. 

 The flight of the Rails is weak and 

 slow, yet they must necessarily take 

 quite long flights across dry stretches 

 of country in order to reach the ponds 

 and lakes where they find their .select- 

 ed quarters. It is not unusual to find 

 mutilated Rails in sections far remov- 

 ed from localities of their choice. 



Among the smaller birds that mi- 

 grate to my neighborhood, the Cuc- 

 koos are night journeyers; the Gnat- 

 catchers, Orioles and Sparrows also. 

 The Vireos are sure to be with us in 

 numbers after a suitable night for mi- 

 grating in spring. The dear little 

 warblers drop into our forests and 

 fairly swarm in suitable quarters after 

 a murky night. The Wrens and 

 Thrushes also blow in over night and 

 it is reasonable to say that the little 

 short-winged Winter Wren makes 

 night trips with the rest of the mi- 

 grants. I once surprised a Winter 

 Wren which had probably become 

 tired in making a night flight and had 

 dropped down in a cleared section. It 

 was the first and only time that I have 

 found one of this species away from its 

 woodland haunts. The devices resort- 

 ed to by the midget to elude my vigi- 

 lence were amusing. The bird dodg- 

 ed along the ground, fluttering between 

 tussocks of grass and securing tempo- 



rary hiding places behind small hush- 

 es and debris. It finally reached a 

 rail fence where it played peek-a-boo 

 in an animated manner for several rail 

 lengths and finally disappeared, prob- 

 ably hiding beneath the bottom rail. 

 Nor would any efforts of mine dislodge 

 the "timorous beastie." 



There is nothing to make me think 

 that the blackbirds migrate at night, 

 though the Bobolink may do so, 

 though in the August journeys the 

 flocks may be seen as they start on 

 their trip to the rice fields. Most of 

 the blackbirds are very deliberate in 

 their movements, but the Rusty passes 

 through our section in a very rapid 

 manner. The Rusty seems to contain 

 both males and. females in the spring 

 flights, while the Redwing and Bronzed 

 Grackle send delegations of men be- 

 fore the women arrive; the latter bird 

 showing males as much as seven or 

 eight days before the females are seen. 



Flycatchers are deliberate in their 

 movements and are night migrants. 

 This leads me to ask if anyone knows 

 of the destruction of a flycatcher, 

 whippoorwill, swift or night hawk by 

 flying against an electric light? If 

 these birds are killed in this manner 

 it is probably a rare occurrance. 

 Swallows perform their seasonal move- 

 ments in the day time, as do also the 

 Rubythroat and Chimney Swift. I 

 have seen a disconnected flock of sev- 

 eral hundred swifts flying to the 

 south; all moving in revolutions 

 which gradually trended toward their 

 winter's home. Of course the Night 

 hawk and Whippoorwill can and do 

 move at night, as might be expected 

 :n the case of night feeders. However. 

 the former generally makes its aut- 

 umnal trips in the broad daylight. 

 more often in the late afternoon. I 

 have seen disconnected flocks of sev- 

 eral hundred winging their way to the 

 south in late August and early Sep- 

 tember. 



