* 
7 
higher latitudes, while those that passed the summer with us 
tory. This is the view of J. A. Alllen, as set forth in pa 
342 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 
precede the latter; and when there is little or no difference b 
tween the plumage of the sexes, both travel together either 
flocks or in pairs. In the autumnal migration this distincti 
obliterated, and nearly all birds associate together in small 
ties or large flocks, composed of. both sexes; and with many 
females and young retire southward, a little in advance of tl 
hardier, adult males. ; 
ew birds are’ absolutely stationary. Even those that we st 
gone to warmer regions. Specimens of the same species, ta 
in winter, differ from those of summer in being larger and stouter. 
The earliest birds that reach any given locality in spring 
usually brighter colored and larger than those that breed there, 
the former passing farther north as the latter arrive. Most b 
begin nesting immediately after arriving at their destination, al! 
when, as is the case with the robin, the first comers appear Wee 
in advance of the breeding season, they remain but a short time, 
moving slowly northward until they have reached their homes when 
they at once commence the task of raising their young, 
after which they begin retiring to the southward. There eis 
a constant movement going on, interrupted only by per ' 
breeding seasons; a general swaying north and south in 
one limit is searcely reached, before a retrogression sets in towards 
the other; and when, as is frequently the case, the southern 
of the northernmost representatives of a species, is north of 
summer range of the southern races, the species is loo upon 
resident, although the individuals composing it are strictly 
ing “ Notes on the Birds of Iowa,” and, I believe, correspo. 
those of nearly all writers on the subject; but high autaa 
disagree. Audubon states that the snipe, Gallinago Wilsonits 
not appear in Canada and Maine, until nearly three weeks 4 
arrives on the marshes of New Jersey; while Frank Fore” 
whose observations in this case are quite as reliable, asserts 
tively that the snipe appears nearly simultaneously in 
New Jersey, and along the St. Lawrence River as far ‘ 
Quebec. The subject has been little studied, and promi of 
| results to a careful investigation ; the lack 
