RANGE AND MIGRATIONS. 
27 
idly behind them—will tarry for any great length of time 
in the torrid zone. Their natures seem to lead them to tem¬ 
perate, north temperate, or even frigid zones. They must 
pass at once from the chilling, repulsive blasts of our autumn 
across the equator to the attractive, wooing breezes of a 
Southern spring. They are very sensitive to heat and cold, 
and it is not in the nature of things that they should remain 
four or five months sweltering under a tropical sun. A few 
may linger, as seen at Rio, down into December, but most 
of them must have “crossed the line” before the end of 
November. The fact that the people of the torrid zone are 
ignorant of the existence of these migrants is proof that they 
do not stay there during all the long Northern winter months. 
Those seen so late as December at Rio must have b een the tai 
end of the autumn flight, nor would they be at all likely to 
abide as near the equator as the mouth of the La Plata, lat. 
35 deg., but would push on still further south, even down to 
Cape Horn to regale themselves m the cooling breezes of 
that region. Yery few if any of these birds north, breed as 
near the equator as 35 degs. Most of them seem to be more 
ambitious to reach the seventieth parallel. May we not 
then safely conclude, in the absence of positive evidence, 
that their habits south of the equator would correspond with 
their traits north? It is not very clearly established what 
route they take in passing from Guiana to Patagonia. 
Whether they follow the coast line and double Cape St. 
Rogue, or take a shorter or more direct route across the 
country, is not so fully determined. The weight of evidence 
is in favor of the direct route. Some of the main branches 
of the Amazon reach up very nearly to the head waters of 
the Paraguay, and these river valleys would seem to offer 
natural highways for our migrants. The birds seen at Con¬ 
cepcion would most naturally follow this route to that inland 
town. Then the mountain ranges are mostly parallel to this 
line and the birds seen at Rio de Janeiro may have flitted 
along down the valleys and water courses to that point. 
Some of the stronger winged, as Charadrius Virginicus, 
Numenius borealis and Totanus Jlavipes , may follow the 
