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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



northward, and the birds prefer a single 

 long flight with abundant rations to a 

 series of shorter flights on scantier fare. 



Migration route No. 3, which is by- 

 way of Cuba and Jamaica, offers a much 

 shorter journey to South America, but it 

 is traversed by only a few species. It is 

 popular as far as Cuba with some 60 spe- 

 cies, of whom great numbers spend the 

 winter on the island ; about 30 of these 

 species have a small contingent who pass 

 on to make Jamaica their winter resort; 

 but scarcely more than 10 species try the 

 final long flight across the Caribbean Sea 

 to South America. Among these are one 

 species each of six widely differing fami- 

 lies — the bank swallow, gray kingbird, 

 Florida nighthawk, Alice thrush, black- 

 poll warbler, and bobolink. The other 

 members of those families employ en- 

 tirely different migration routes. 



It is not possible to ascertain whether 

 these travelers on the so-called "bobolink 

 route'' represent adventurous species that 

 are seeking to improve on the round- 

 about course through Mexico, or old 

 fogies who hold to the way of their fore- 

 fathers long after their brethren have 

 proven to their own satisfaction the su- 

 perior advantages of the more western 

 route. 



The next route to the eastward, No. 2, 

 traverses the chain of islands that ex- 

 tend from Florida to South America. 

 This, too, is considerably shorter than 

 the Florida- Yucatan route, and land can 

 always be kept in sight ; yet this line also 

 is discredited. A few individuals of 

 about 25 species follow it as far as Porto 

 Rico, and only 6 of these continue to the 

 South American coast, and these last in 

 such diminished numbers as to form an 

 insignificant fraction of the winter visit- 

 ants in that region. 



The explanation, of course, lies in the 

 question of food. The combined area of 

 all the West India islands east of Porto 

 Rico is so small that it could not furnish 

 subsistence for even one per cent of the 

 myriads of birds which throng the main 

 migration route across the Gulf. 



To the westward the short route, No. 

 5, stretches a few hundred miles from 

 the coast of Texas to northern Vera 



Cruz. It is adopted by a few Kentucky 

 warblers, worm-eating warblers, golden- 

 wing warblers, and some others, who 

 seek in this way to avoid a slow journey 

 by land across a region scantily supplied 

 with moist woodlands. 



Still farther west, routes 6 and 7 rep- 

 resent the land journeys of those birds 

 from the western United States who 

 winter in Mexico and Central America. 

 Their trips are comparatively short ; most 

 of them are content to stop when they 

 have reached the middle districts of 

 Mexico, and only a few pass east of the 

 southern part of that country. 



Route No. 1 remains to be noticed. It 

 extends in an approximately north-and- 

 south line from Nova Scotia to the 

 Lesser Antilles and the northern coast 

 of South America. Though more than 

 a thousand miles shorter than the main 

 migration route, it is not employed by 

 any land bird. But it is a favorite fall 

 route for thousands of water birds, and 

 as such will be referred to again more 

 in detail. 



It must not be considered that these 

 routes as outlined on the map repre- 

 sent distinctly segregated pathways with 

 clearly defined borders. On the contrary, 

 they are merely convenient subdivisions 

 of the one great flightway which extends 

 from North to South America. There is 

 probably no single mile in the whole line 

 between northern Mexico and the Lesser 

 Antilles which is not crossed each fall 

 by migrating birds. What is meant is 

 that the great bulk of the birds, both as 

 to species and number of individuals, 

 cross the Gulf to eastern Mexico, while 

 to the eastward their numbers steadily 

 diminish. 



LIGHT-HOUSES LURE THOUSANDS OF BIRDS 

 TO DESTRUCTION 



It is not to be supposed that these long" 

 flights over the waters can occur without 

 many casualties, and not the smallest of 

 the perils arises from the beacons which 

 man has erected along the coast to insure 

 his own safety. "Last night I could have 

 filled a mail-sack with the bodies of little 

 warblers which killed themselves strik- 

 ing against my light," wrote the keeper 



