546 
A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
THE FALL MIGRATION 
If you watch the birds you will soon notice that some eat 
only animal food, in the shape of various bugs, worms, and 
lice, while others eat seeds of various weeds, and grasses, and 
also berries. There are many birds that, like ourselves, eat a 
little of everything both animal and vegetable. 
For instance, the Swallows live on insects of the air, ex- 
cept sometimes in the autumn flocking they feed for a short 
time on bayberries. The Phoebe is an insect eater ; also the 
Catbird, though he is fond of strawberries and cherries for 
desert. 
You know that when frost comes the air-flying insects are 
killed, and the gnats, mosquitoes, and flies that have worried the 
horses and cattle disappear. For this reason the birds that de- 
pend upon these bugs must follow their food supply, and move 
off further southward where frost has not yet come. 
This is the reason why so many birds who feed on winged 
insects leave us in early autumn, before it is cold enough to 
make them uncomfortable ; they must follow their food. 
There are other birds that when they no longer have nest- 
lings to feed can pick up a living from berries and seeds, like 
the Robin, or live the greater part of the season upon seeds, like 
the Sparrows. These birds are not driven away by the first 
frost, but many stay about until the weather is uncomfortably 
cold, and some few remain all winter, like the Meadowlarks, 
Nuthatches, Jays, and Woodpeckers, who, having stout beaks, 
can dig out grubs and insects from among the roots of grass 
and from tough tree bark ; but these too must move on if ice 
coats the trees or snow buries their ground-feeding places. 
As a great many birds spend the nesting season north of 
Connecticut they pass by on their way southward, and, if the 
feeding is good, stay with us sometimes several weeks, so that 
the flocks of Robins seen here in October are likely to be 
those that nested in the north, while our own birds are gradu- 
allv drifting down the extreme south, where they winter. 
This great southward journey of the birds, that begins as 
earlv as August and lasts at some seasons if the winter is open 
almost until Christmas, is called the fall migration, and when 
it is over the birds remaining with us are classed as Winter 
Residents. 
