Robins, too, have been scattered over 1 
the land in tremendous numbers. Or the 
afternoon of Thursday, April-11. I walked 
out from Cambridge to Belmont, past 
Fresh Pond. In the wot meadows along 
the northern side of the pond, where the 
Tudor icehouses stood in Mr. Bolles’ day, 
a multitude of robins were feeding. They 
stood like plover on a beach, each head¬ 
ing in a different direction. But a beach 
as full of plover as the meadows were of 
robins would be a sight one would cross a 
continent to see. They were like the 
daffodils, a never-ending line. I counted 
over two hundred and fifty, and then had 
seen certainly less than a third of the 
whole assembly. As I watched them, 
some sudden alarm startled a number, so 
that they rose and flew between me and I 
the low sun- Their wings were illumin¬ 
ated by the sun’s rays, and seemed trans- I 
parent, like gauze; only their bodies 
were opaque. Flock after flock flew past 
on shimmering wings. One may watch a 
familiar object for years, and some day, 
if one can only see it in a new light, dis¬ 
cover a new and unsuspected beauty. 
It was nearing six, and for twenty min¬ 
utes little companies of robins, and occa¬ 
sionally a group of fox sparrows, had been 
flying overhead in a northern direction, ; 
heading, that is, toward Belmont and Wav- ! 
erley and passing at the rate of about fifty j 
a minute. For the next half hour a sue- j 
cession of flocks went by, all heading in 1 
the same general direction, in more or less 
compact groups, sometimes nearly a hun¬ 
dred in sight at - once. Even the children 
playing in the streets, commented on the 
sky full of birds. I was curious to know 
their destination. Many seemed to keep 
along the low land as if toward Waverley. 
Others made for the hill top, due north, 
and if the robin had not been a day mi¬ 
grant, I might have supposed that the 
bright sunset had started them on a north¬ 
ward journey. 
It was after six when I stood at the 
edge of the extensive cedar grove between 
BeMnont and Arlington Heights. The sun 
had set, but still companies of robins, 
often as many as forty or fifty in a band, 
kept coming past. I saw now that they 
were seeking a night’s lodging in the 
cedars. As they neared the dark line of 
trees, they generally flew low over the 
ground, and the whole flight, for such a 
noisy bird, was almost mysteriously silent. 
As flock after flock kept arriving, apparent¬ 
ly out of the empty sky, I began to have 
a faint conception of the infinite number 
of these creatures that must exist in the 
land. Their silence, their unvarying direc¬ 
tion, and the successive appearance of 
flock after flock, began to give me a help¬ 
less sensation, as of one about to be over¬ 
whelmed by infinite numbers of some small 
creature. A plague of locusts would arouse 
this feeling in an acute degree, and to 
Bishop Hatto in his tower it came as a 
premonition of his doom. 
The robins, however, swept innocently by, 
and sought the dark cedars. I began to 
hear now a subdued clucking from all parts 
of the grove, as the restless birds settled 
themselves for the night. As it grew dark¬ 
er, the incoming flocks flew so close to me 
that as they swerved past, the swish of 
their wings was fairly loud. The robins 
in the cedars were still calling, but the ar¬ 
rivals had almost stopped. Occasionally a 
fox sparrow sang, or a half-frozen hyla 
piped in a neighboring pool. 
Few of us have had such an opportunity 
before to study fox-sparrow music. The 
individuals that I have heard differed 
markedly in their songs, though there was 
one type to which they all seemed to ap¬ 
proximate. They differed also In richness 
and loudness of tone. It is not only the 
splendid quality of the voice tiiat distin¬ 
guishes'the song of this bird, but also the 
accent*with which he delivers it. The high 
notes are invariably brought out with great¬ 
er force than the others. The fox sparrow 
could not have a better foil than the snow¬ 
bird, whose trill is absolutely devoid of 
expression. Several fox sparrows that I 
heard talked to themselves between the repe¬ 
titions'of their song, uttering formless little 
fragments and snatches of tone similar to 
the fall song of -the song sparrow. 
The invasion of our towns by such a ! 
melodious multitude has suggested, no 
doubt, to many observers some of the 
puzzling questions connected with migra¬ 
tion. Why are they here this year in such 
numbers, and nearly absent during other 
springs? It would be extremely interest¬ 
ing to know the exact limits of this great 
wave of fox sparrows, robins and snow¬ 
birds. When all the Atlantic seaboard 
watches the returning migrants as closely 
as certain communities do already, we 
shall have a system of bird bulletins, like 
the present weather maps. The chief fore¬ 
caster in Boston will announce that an 
area of high ornithological pressure exists 
in New Jersey, which will be due in Massa¬ 
chusetts the following day. “Expect a 
wave of brown thrashers and chewinks, 
with possible chimney swifts in the after¬ 
noon!” 
Ornithologists generally account for a 
condition like the present by assuming that 
south of us there have been conditions fav¬ 
orable to migration; the birds that have 
been wintering in the Middle States there¬ 
fore start north, but when they reach New 
England, finding cold weather and north¬ 
east winds hero, they go no farther. Birds 
may keep arrivinng from the South, if the 
conditions there remain favorable to a 
northward movement, but they bank up 
here till we have the country flooded as 
at present. 
It may interest the readers of this col¬ 
umn to compare with their own dates the 
following list of arrivals in Lexington. It 
will be seen that there,- as in Belmont, no 
chipping sparrows came on the warm wave 
which brought field sparrows, though the 
two often arrive together. This suggests 
another problem in migration. Were the , 
chipping sparrows with the field sparrows j 
in the South, and did they remain obdurate 
to conditions that set the other birds mov¬ 
ing, or did the field sparrows which reached 
us come from some locality where no chip¬ 
ping sparrows wintered? 
The list is as follows: 
RJuehlrds . 
Phoehes, Rusty blackbirds. 
«< 
21 
Fox sparrows. Juneos. 
II 
on 
Oowblrds. Meadowlarks . 
*4 
2k 
Fiold sparrows. \>sper sparrows. 
14 
28 
Savanna sparrows . 
II 
• •••••• 
30 
Yellow palm warbler (one bird).. 
41 
30 
Pine warblers . 
II 
31 
