Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-10-19
U. S. Birds That Fly Far South

Such familiar North American
birds as the bobolink and the barn
swallow that had flown all the way
to Argentina to spend our winter and
would fly thousands of miles back
home to nest in the United States
and Canada are among the many
species personally observed in South
America by DIR. Alexander Wetmore,
ornithologist and assistant, secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution and
described by him in bulletin of the
institution.
DR.. Wetmore was sent to the south
ern portion of South America by the
Biological Survey, United States De-
partment of Agriculture. He was in
structed to gather first hand infor-
nation as to the status of migratory
game and insectivorous birds, in or
der to throw more light on the opera
tions of the migratory bird treaty
between the United States and Cam
ada in according protection to these
species. Increase in migratory game
and insectivorous birds in this coun-
try had already been noted since the
enforcement of the treaty provisions,
but additional data from the winter
homes of some of the far-fiying birds
was desired.
Though many birds from North
America commonly go to the northern
part of South America, DR.. Wetmore
explains that only a relatively few
species pass below the equator as far
south as Paraguay, Uruguay, Argen-
tina and Chile. However, these in
clude some of our best known birds.
One who did not know their habits
would hardly believe them capable of
flying such enormous distances twice
each year.
among the few of the smaller land
species that perform this extended
flight" says DR.. Wetmore, ''the barn
swallow and the bobolink are worthy
of mention especially the latter, as,
though the barn swallow occurs dur
ing the northern winter months
from the West Indies southwark, the
bobolink withdraws wholly into the
Chaco. The yellow billed cuckoo,
cliff swallow olive backed thrush,
nighthawk and Swafnson's hawk are
of more or less common occurrence in
the northern half of the region in
question, but are not found in album
dance. The great body of North
American migrants, however, are
shore birds, some of which, as the two
yellow legs, the sanderlng, and the
spotted sandpiper have extended VIM
ter ranges, while others, as the Hud-
sonian godwit, the upland plover, the
buff-breasted pectoral, Baird's and
uninterrupted sandpipers, find the
pampas and in Patagonia their winter
metropolis. With these may be men
toned the Eskimo curlew, now nearly,
If not actually, extinct. =
"a few individuals of these north
ern species arrive in the South in
July and August, but their main
southwark flight occurs from Septem- |
Der to November. In other words. !
they pass south with the coming of /
fall In the northern hemisphere. and |
below the equator follow the adj /
vance of the southern spring to !
their winter home, remain during the |
southern summer and with the com
Ing of colder weather in February
and March withdraw northward until
they cross the equator and follow the
northern spring in its advance to |
their breeding grounds in the north !
ern United States, Canada and Arctic
America. Their itinerary thus takes
advantage of shifting seasons in both
continents"