Evening star., 1921-11-18
GREAT FLIGHTS BIRDS TAKE
ON TRIP TO SOUTH AMERICA
Plover Goes 2,4O0 Miles Without Stopping;
Some Stop at Islands, Others Go
by Way of Mexico.

In the study of bird migration 1t 10
found that the nature of the surface
Of the land areas in the northern
half Of the western hemisphere has
tended to great variations in the
routes Of birds from Brazil to Can
ada As much Of the earth's surface
between these two objective points
the Caribbean sea and parts Of the
taken by the birds to get over this
Intervening unhospitable region are
almost as numerous as the bird fam
lilies that traverse them.
The fifty species from New Eng
land that winter in South America,
instead Of making the direct trip over
the Atlantic, involving flight of
1000 miles. take a somewhat longer
route that follows the coast of Flor
Ida and passes thence by island or
main land to South America Birds
that travel by this route need never
be out Of sight of land; resting places
are afforded at convenient intervals
and the distance is but little longer
than the water route. About twenty
five species continue as far as Porto
Rico and remain there through the
winter. 1t is said that only adven-
turers of some six species gain the
South American mainland by COM
pleting the island chain. Should a
small proportion only of the feath-
cred inhabitants of the eastern states
select this route, not even the lux
uriant fauna and flora of the tropics
could supply their needs.
Spend Season in Cuba.
A still more direct route, but one
requiring longer single flights, stretch
es from Florida to South America. by
the way of Cuba to South America. by
$50 miles between Florida and Cuba
are covered by tens of thousands OF
birds of some sixty different species.
About half the species take the next
flight Of ninety miles to the Jamaican
mountains Here a 500-mile stretch
of islandless ocean confronts them
and scarcely a third of their number
leave the forest-clad hills for the
unseen beyond. Among this species
Is the bobolink, which is so full of
strength and energy that the 500
mile flight 10 South America on the
way to the waving pampas of south
ern Brazil seem only trif1e. In fact,
it is said, that many bobolinks appear
to scorn the Jamaican resting point
and to compass in a single flight the
700 miles from Cuba to South Amer
ica. With the bObolink is an incon-
gruous company of travelling COM
pdulONS-d SlScO, hlIS DlI u dIIu d
night hawk, that summer in Florida ;
the chuck kwill's-widow of the gulf
states; the New England cuckoos; the
gray checked thrush from Quebec,
the bank swallow from Labrador and
the black-poll warbler from far-off
Alaska. However, the bobolinks so
far outnumber all the rest that the
passage across the Caribbean from
Cuba to South America is called the
"bobolink route" Occasionally a
wood thrush or a tanager joins the
assemblage, but the "bobolink route
known to ornithologists as the is
land route" as whole is not popu
lar with other birds, and, though
many traverse it, they are but a
fraction of the multitudes of North
American birds that spend the winter
in the southern continent.
Follow Coast Line.
The gulf route. which stretches from
northwestern Florida across the gulf
is the highway which most of the
birds of the Atlantic coast follow
The birds east of the Allegheny noun
tains move northwest in the fall, ap-
proximately parallel with the sea