9 
BY THE AY AY SIDE 
for in many cases the new plumage 
bears little or no resemblance to the 
old. For example, the bobolink might 
be very easily mistaken by a casual 
observer for a sparrow of some kind. 
All the males assume the streaked ap¬ 
pearance of the female and it is often 
the case that one can identify them by 
their characteristic note only. Then, 
too, with the inception of this moult, 
and sometimes even before, the males of 
many species give up singing, and thus 
added diligence and keenness of ob¬ 
servation is required to detect the 
presence of birds which were hitherto 
easily found because of their charac¬ 
teristic song. 
Moulting once past, some birds be¬ 
gin to migrate at once. One fine 
morning early in August we are sur¬ 
prised at flushing a flock of sand¬ 
pipers which do not nest in our local¬ 
ity. It means that the fall migration 
has begun and that the advance guard 
of the early migrants has arrived. As 
a group the family of sandpipers prob¬ 
ably makes the shortest stay of any of 
our summer visitants. Not that they 
are not seen here in southern Wiscon¬ 
sin until well along in September, con¬ 
siderably after the cowbird and the 
yellow warbler have left us. Their 
breeding ground is in the far north, 
even in the treeless tundras. Thither 
they migrate in spring, but stay there 
only long enough to raise their young 
and as soon as the latter are able to 
fly, return again to their winter homes. 
Shortly after this, the earliest mi¬ 
grants among the locally breeding 
species betake themselves on their 
southward journey. The yellow war¬ 
bler, cowbird, loggerhead and migrant 
shrikes, the cuckoos, the wrens, and 
the dickcissel belong to this group. 
And about the time that we note their 
departure, there is to be observed an¬ 
other occurrence which appraises us of 
the activity of the bird world. It is 
the “flocking" of individuals of the 
same species preparatory to migra¬ 
tion. All summer long the redwinged 
blackbirds, for instance, have inhab¬ 
ited the marshes, each family staying 
more or less together. But now they 
gather in huge flocks and make excur¬ 
sions into the neighboring fields. Nor 
is this habit limited to the redwings; 
grackles, yellow-headed blackbirds, 
robins to some extent, and some swal¬ 
lows, notably the martin, are found to 
flock in this region. The last named 
are known to gather from a consider¬ 
able region and during the late after¬ 
noon for some days previous to their 
departure seem to hold a flying meet. 
There seems to be evidence that at 
such times the flock as a whole acts as 
a judge on the ability of its members 
to successfully make the migration; 
for birds have been seen to kill indi¬ 
viduals which were apparently weak 
flyers. 
Then comes September and with it, 
the warblers. Their presence is un¬ 
mistakable, but their identity is a puz¬ 
zle. We rejoice at once more seeing 
these restless creatures flitting about 
in treetop or bush and we hope to re¬ 
new acquaintances. In this, however, the 
dense foliage together with the habits of 
the birds themselves and their changed 
plumage, disappoint us. With patience 
we may do much, yet we must 
pass over many, many warblers with 
the frank admission, “I can’t make it 
out.” Still there is a certain fascina¬ 
tion about this uncertainty, especially 
on the moonlight nights when thou¬ 
sands of birds are migrating. We 
hear them calling to one another as 
they fly high up in the air made sil- 
