SYSTEMATIC REPORT. 17 



Nicaragua, and Mexico. The systematic migration records of Mr. 

 George E^. Cherrie, for two years at San Jose, Costa liica, and of 

 Dr. C. W, Richmond, for a year in southeastern Nicaragua, have been 

 of great service and value. The field parties of the Biological Survey 

 which have worked for twelve years in Mexico have obtained a large 

 amount of excellent data of extreme usefulness in determining ques- 

 tions of winter distribution and migration. But while much has been 

 done, some notable deficiencies exist. No observer has been along the 

 coast of northwestern Florida during the fall migration and records of 

 spring migration in this locality are deplorably lacking. While 

 Yucatan has been well studied in winter and spring, almost no notes 

 have been made on the north coast or on the islands off the east coast 

 during the period from July until late in the fall. Consequently the 

 beginning of fall migration in this country is unreported. Scarcely 

 any birds have been collected in Guatemala southeast of the towns of 

 Duenas and Retalhuleu, or during the migration season in any of the 

 highlands of Honduras and Nicaragua. Hence little or nothing is 

 known of the movements of birds through these countries, except by 

 inference from data collected in Costa Rica and Mexico. In the 

 greater part of Guatemala practically no field work has been done in 

 the last twenty-five years. 



In 1888 this office published a bulletin entitled Bird Migration in 

 the Mississippi Valley,^' by W. W. Cooke, containing the results of an 

 effort to trace and time the birds during the spring and fall migrations 

 of 1881 and 1885 from the Gulf of Mexico to Manitoba. In the 

 northern half of this area the number of observers was sufficient to 

 afford a fairly approximate knowledge of the movements of species. 

 But south of St. Louis there were few records, and scarcel}^ anj^ of 

 the arrival of birds on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. During 

 the period that has elapsed since the bulletin was written, the Biolog- 

 ical Survey has collected from all parts of North America a vast store 

 of material on bird migration, and has been especially fortunate in the 

 completeness of some of the records secured from the South. The 

 largest single addition to the knowledge of movements of birds along 

 the southern border of the United States is due to records of species 

 striking the lighthouses off the south coast of Florida. Several thou- 

 sands of these instances have been recorded. They furnish the best 

 available data so far collected on the length of the migrating season, 

 and afford also much-needed information concerning the time when 

 man}^ species of birds begin their migration in the fall. The keeper 

 of the lighthouse at Sombrero Key, in particular, has taken much 

 interest in the matter, and has spent man}^ hours counting and identi- 

 fying birds, either killed b}^ Hying against the glass protecting the 



« Bull. No. 2, Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, 1888. 

 6152— No. 18—04 2 



