194 
The Passing of the Birds. 
wavLlevs and vireos especially, appear 
to move as a general thing in mixed 
Hocks. Whenever the woods are fnll 
of them, as is tlie case now and then 
every spring and fall, one of the most 
striking features of the show is the nnm- 
her of species represented. For the ben¬ 
efit of readei'S who may never liave ob¬ 
served such a “bird wave,” or “rush,” 
let me sketch hastily one which occurred 
a few years ago, on the 22d of Septem¬ 
ber. As I started out at six o’clock in 
the morning, in a cool nortlnvest wind, 
birds were passing overhead in an almost 
continuous stream, following a westerly 
course. They were chieHy warblers, hut 
I noted one fairly lai'ge flock of pnrple 
flnclies. All were at a o’ood heio-ht, 
and the wliole movement had the air of a 
diurnal migration. I conld only conjec¬ 
ture tliat it was the end of the noctur¬ 
nal flight, so far, at least, as the war¬ 
blers were concerned; in other words, 
that the birds, on this particular occa¬ 
sion, did not finish their nightly jour¬ 
ney till a little after sunrise. But if 
many were still flying, many others had 
already halted; for ])resently I came 
to a piece of tliin, stunted woods by 
the roadside, and found in it a high¬ 
ly interesting company. Almost the 
first specimen I saw was a Connecti¬ 
cut warbler, perclied in full view and 
ex])osing himself perfectly. Red-hel- 
lied nuthatches were calling, and wai-- 
hlers uncounted were flitting al)ont in 
the trees and imdei'hrnsh. A hurried 
search sliowed l)lackpolls, black-throated 
greens, blue yellow-l)acks, one redstart, 
one black-and-white creejcer, one Black- 
])nrnian, one black - and - yellow, one 
Canadian flycatcher (singing lustily), 
one yellow red])oll, and one clearly 
marked hay-hreast. The first yellow- 
Icellied woodpecker of the season was 
liammering in a tree over my head, and 
not far away was the first flock of white- 
throated s])arrows. After breakfast I 
])assed tlie ])la(te again, and the only 
l)ird to he found was one ])hcehe ! With¬ 
in luilf a mile of the spot, however, 1 
[August, 
came upon at least tliree goodly throngs, 
including scarlet tanagers (all in yellow 
and black), black-throated bine war¬ 
blers, pine warblers, olive-hactked and 
gray-cheeked tliruslies, a flock of clie- 
winks (made nj) exclusively of adult 
males, so far as I could discover), red¬ 
eyed vireos, one solitary vireo, brown 
thrashers, with more redstarts, a sec¬ 
ond Blackljnrnian, and a second black- 
and-yellow. Every company had its 
complement of chickadees. Of the 
morning’s forty species, thirteen were 
warblers; and of tliese thirteen, four 
were represented by one specimen each. 
For curiosity’s sake, I may add that 
a mncli longer walk that afternoon, 
through the same and other Avoods. aa'us 
uttei'ly hari-en. Except for tAAo or 
three flocks of AA^liite-throated sparroAvs, 
there Avas no sign AvhateA'er that the 
niglit before had brought us a “flight.” 
Autumnal ornithology may almost he 
called a science by itself. Not only 
are birds harder to find (being silent) 
and harder to recognize in autumn than 
in spring, lint tlieir moA'ements are in 
themselves more difflcnlt of ohseiwation. 
A feAV years of note-taking aa ill put one 
in possession of the approximate dates 
of arrival of all our common A^ernal mi¬ 
grants. Every local observer Avill tell 
yon Avhen to look for each of the famil¬ 
iar hii'ds of liis neighborhood; hut he 
AA ill not be half so ready Avith informa¬ 
tion as to tlie time of the same birds’ 
departure. Ask him about a feAv of the 
commonest, — the least flycatcher and 
the OA^en-hird, or the golden AA'arlder 
and the Maryland yelloAv-throat. He 
Avill ansAA'er, perhaps, that he has seen 
Maryland yelloAV-throats in early Octo¬ 
ber, and golden AA'arhlers in early Sep¬ 
tember ; lint he AAull A"ery likely add that 
these AA'ere jiroliahly voyagers from the 
north, and that he has iieA'^er made out 
just AA'hen his OAvn summer birds take 
their leave. 
After the Avork of nidification is over, 
liirds as a rule AA'ander more or less 
from their breeding haunts; and even if 
