20 Bulletin* of the 



the movements I birds at night by observations at light houses, 1 and 

 by the use of telescopes turned upon the moon, a record being kept of the 

 birds that crossed the illuminated field. A more or less systematic attempt 

 has been made at the former, and I believe Mr. Winknewerder at the 

 Universi.y of Wisconsin is at present carrying on investigations in the 

 latter line. Some data are gathered also from the birds that meet with 

 accidents while migrating, such as flying against t( wers, buildings, wires, etc. 



While at Woods Holl in the summer of 1900 I had the pleasure of 

 hearing Dr. Robert H. Wolcott give the results of some of his studies on 

 migration in Nebraska, in which he seemed to show beyond doubt that at 

 least seme of the birds, in coming in:o Nebraska in the spring, follow 

 natural routes such as the water-ways ; for example, certain species were 

 found to arrive successively at intervals along the Missouri, the Platte 

 and finally at localities on s:reams tributary to the Platte. It was with 

 an idea of finding whether similar routes could be mapped in Michigan 

 that I lately undertook to work over the records accumulated by the migra- 

 tion committee of the Michigan Orni.hological Club. I found, however 

 that the records for any one species were far too few and scattered to 

 give any satisfactory results. Although the sheets in use give much 

 valuable information, there are several reasons why, it seems to me, what 

 might be called an intensive method might be employed to advantage in place 

 of this more extensive one. The ideal would be, of course, a method 

 which would give us complete records of the movements of every species 

 of bird at each station where there is an observer, not only for the period 

 of migration, but throughout the year ; but for obvious reasons these cannot 

 be obtained. In the first place, to obtain such records would require 

 practically the whole time of the observer, while for these notes we have to 

 depend almost entirely upon persons whose time is mostly taken up in other 

 ways, and who study birds only as a pleasure and pastime during leisure 

 hours. And again, many of these observers, though familiar with the com- 

 moner species of birds, and whose notes on these species are perfectly 

 reliable, are net familiar with the bulk of the birds ; and in their migration 

 blanks the list of species is often small, or otherwise, apt to be inaccurate. 



Some common bird should be selected, one which is familiar to all 

 amateurs, and blanks sent out with full instructions for recording the data 

 with regard to this species for all times of the year. The species selected 

 should also be one that makes its presence known when it is in a locality, 

 without requiring too much search to find it. It should also be one in 

 which the female is easily distinguishable from the male, and if possible, in 

 which the young differ from both. With proper instructions accompanying 

 these blanks, records could be gathered from which the movements of the 

 specie^ could be mapped with considerable assurance, and incidentally the 

 distribution and relative abundance at the different stations throughout 

 the year could be ascertained. Light would also be thrown upon many vex- 

 ing questions which are awaiting settlement. For instance, do the birds 

 remain in the neighborhood after breeding, or do they move northward as 



"In this connection, Bird Migration, by William Brewster. Memoirs of the Nuttal 

 Ornithological Club, No. 1. Cambridge, Mass., 1886. 



Notes on bird migration are scattered throughout all the ornithological publications: 

 no complete bibliography has ever been made, and would be both very extensive and 

 difficult to compile. 



