1881.] Notes on the Migrations of Birds. 871 
by the lake, three miles off, several days before advancing to the 
outskirts of the much higher village. Zhe most favorable haunts 
are the first revisited. Local differences of season, too, are very 
considerable: April 30, a visit to Bethlehem, nine miles south- 
ward, showed a week’s advance. 
(3) The great influence of season and the comparatively little 
influence of temporary weather (except on water fowl)—Crows 
moving southward in large bodies in the latter part of Octo- 
ber, predicted to me a severe winter. It proved one of ex- 
traordinary and almost uninterrupted severity, without any 
midwinter thaw. In the first week of March these crows re- 
turned (three hundred debating one afternoon whether to roost in 
Litchfield woods or to pass on), our first spring weather forthwith 
followed, and real winter did not reappear. Snow-birds (/uxco 
hyemalis) were absent all winter, following southward the unu- 
Sually extended and steady line of frost and snow; and nut- 
hatches and most of their kindred were absent during the latter 
or stormy part, marked especially by ice-storms. On the other 
hand, some warblers, after a month of bright, lovely weather, 
waited to appear in the face of the cold, blustering, lasting north- 
easter that set in May 16. In spring, moonlight is taken advan- 
tage of by birds like water-fowl, that make long voyages in long 
flights; but it affects little our insessorial birds, who, however 
much they may profit by the harvest moon in autumn, in spring 
are More strongly impelled to migrate, and reappear pretty regu- 
larly, independently of the lunar calendar. For instance, at home 
T have noted the arrival of a particular pair of Wilson’s thrushes 
year after year, between the sth and the roth of May, often 
Coming apparently in the night, however young or old the moon 
might be. No doubt, however, as I have even detected some- 
times, migrants that seem to have come in the night, often arrive 
in the evening, simply traveling till a late hour of the day before 
resting, and the next morning may linger for refreshment before 
resuming their journey. In building, on the contrary, activity is 
in the morning. 
(4) The uncertain order of species.—In spite of pretty regular 
habits of migration among the later comers, accidental circum- 
Stances produce such variations that there is no certain order or 
Procedure among the different kinds, even near relations. Whether 
the chipping or the field sparrow (Spizellas) will appear first in a 
_ Siven locality where both are common, who can safely predict ? 
