Ii8 
THE CONDOR 
VOL. VI 
peculiarly liable to destruction by striking high objects. A new tower in a city 
kills many before the survivors learn to avoid it. The Washington monument has 
caused the death of many little migrants; and though the number of its victims 
has decreased of late years, yet on a single morning in the spring of 1902 nearly 
150 lifeless bodies were strewn around its base. 
Bright lights attract birds from great distances. While the torch in the Bar- 
tholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was kept lighted, the sacrifice of 
life it caused was enormous, even reaching a maximum of 700 birds in a month. 
A flashing light frightens birds away and a red light is avoided by them as if it 
were a danger signal, but a steady white light looming out of the mist or darkness 
seems to act like a magnet and draws the wanderers to destruction. Coming from 
any direction, they veer around to the leeward side, and then, flying against the 
wind, dash themselves against the pitiless glass. 
DISTANCE OF MIGRATION. 
The length of the migration journey varies enormously. Some birds do not 
migrate at all. Many a cardinal, Carolina wren, and bobwhite rounds out its 
whole contented life within ten milesof its birthplace. Other birds, for instance, 
the pine warbler and the blackheaded grosbeak, do not venture in winter south of 
tlie l)reeding range, so that with them the fall migration is only a withdrawal from 
the northern and a concentration in the southern part of the summer home — the 
tlie warbler in about a fourth and the grosbeak in less than an eighth of the 
summer area. 
Tlie next variation is illustrated by the robin, which occurs as a species in the 
middle districts of tlie Ibiited States throughout the year, in Canada only in sum- 
mer, and along the Gulf of Mexico only in winter. Probably no individual robin 
is a continuous resident in any section; but the robin that nests, let us say, in 
southern Missouri, wilt spend the winter near the Gulf, while his hardy Canada- 
bred cousin will be the winter tenant of the abandoned summer home of the 
southern bird. 
Most migrants entirely change their abode twice a year, and some of them 
travel immense distances. Of the land birds, the common eastern nighthawk 
seems to deserve first place among those whose winter homes are widely distant 
from the breeding grounds. Alaska and Patagonia, separated by 115 degrees of 
latitude, are the extremes of the summer and winter homes of the bird; and each 
spring many a nighthawk travels the 5,000 miles that lie between. But some of 
the shore birds are still more inveterate voyagers. These cover from 6,000 to 
8.000 miles each way, and appear to make traveling their chief occupation. 
ROUTES OF MIGRATION. 
Birds often seem eccentric in choice of route, and many land birds do not take 
the shortest line. The fifty species from New England that winter in South 
America, instead of making the direct trip over the Atlantic, involving a flight of 
2.000 miles, take a slightly longer route which follows the coast to Florida, and 
passes thence liy island or mainland to South America. What would seem at fir.st 
sight to be a natural and convenient migratory highway extends from Florida 
through the Bahamas or Cuba to Haiti, Porto Rico, and the Le.sser Antilles, and 
thence to South America. The bird that travels by this route need never be out 
of sight of land; resting places may be had at convenient intervals, and the dis- 
tance is but little longer than the water route. Yet, beyond Cuba, this highwaj’ 
is little used. About twenty-five species continue as far as Porto Rico and re- 
