TIMES OF MIGRATION 
33 
to leave in the fall, while the later arrivals are among the first depart- 
ures. With this group should also be placed a small number of what 
may be called Summer Visitants, composed of birds which, like the 
Little Blue Heron and White Egrets, after breeding in more southern 
latitudes may wander as far as several hundred miles northward. The 
term Summer Visitant may also be applied to Shearwaters and Petrels, 
which, having bred in the Southern Hemisphere during our winter, 
pass the summer off our coasts. 
3. Transient Visitants— Includes species which, nesting north of 
a given locality and wintering south of it, consequently pass through 
it when migrating. Most transient visitants may be found at a certain 
locality on both their spring and fall migrations, but a small number 
occur at only one season. In the Mississippi Valley, for example, the 
Golden Plover is found in the spring but much less frequently in the 
fall; while on the Atlantic Coast the Black Tern appears during the 
fall migration but is unknown in the spring. The earlier Transient 
Visitants, for example the Fox Sparrow and Hermit Thrush, may 
remain in the latitude of New York City for a month or more, but the 
later arrivals pass by in a week or ten days. 
4. Winter Residents — Includes species which come to us in the fall 
and remain until the spring. Some, like the Junco, are of regular occur- 
rence. Others, like the Pine Grosbeak, may be abundant some winters 
and rare or wanting other winters. To these four groups may be added 
a fifth of birds of accidental occurrence. 
Let us now review the bird-life of the vicinity of New York City for 
the year as it is affected by migration. I here abridge from “Bird-Life.” 
January . — Probably during no other month is there less movement 
among our birds than in January. The regular winter residents have 
come; the fall migrants, which may have lingered until December, 
have gone, and the earliest spring migrants will not arrive before the 
latter part of February or early March. January, in fact, is the only 
month in the year in which as a rule some birds do not arrive or depart. 
This rule, however, may be broken by such irregular birds as the Snowy 
Owl, Pine Grosbeak, or Redpoll, which wander southward in search 
of food. Food, indeed, is now the one concern of birds and their move- 
ments are largely governed by its supply. Snow may fall and blizzards 
rage, but so long as birds find sufficient to eat they apparently are not 
affected by the weather. Where seed-bearing weeds are accessible there 
we may look for Juncos and Tree Sparrows; cedar trees bearing berries 
often tempt Waxwings, Robins and Bluebirds to winter near them. 
When bayberries are abundant we may expect Myrtle Warblers to 
remain through the winter. I recall a sheltered pile of buckwheat 
chaff at Englewood, N. J., which furnished food for a small flock of 
Mourning Doves all one winter. In Central Park, New York City, a 
Mockingbird, which had evidently escaped from a cage, was under 
daily observation from October to January, and thrived during the 
exceptionally severe winter while nourished by the berries of a privet 
