Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/684

668 The commoner permanent residents of the middle Eastern States are the following:

and occasionally the Waxwing, Myrtle Warbler, Bluebird, and Robin. To these should be added the following more or less common winter visitant land-birds:

Let us now begin with the opening of the spring migration and briefly review the ornithological year. In the vicinity of New York city the first birds arrive from the south late in February or early in March. There is much variation in the coming of these early birds. Later, when the weather is more settled, migrants arrive within a few days of a given date. In April most of our winter visitants leave for the north. The current of migration grows steadily stronger until about May 12th, when high-water mark is reached. Then it rapidly subsides, and the spring migration is practically over by June 1st. The winter visitants have gone, the great army of transients has passed us, and our bird population is now composed of permanent residents with the addition of about ninety summer residents.

Nesting time has arrived, and birds which for nearly a year have been free to go and come as inclination directed, now have homes where, day after day, they may be found in tireless attendance upon the nest and its treasures. Courtship, the construction of a dwelling, the task of incubation, and care of the young, all tend to stimulate the characteristic traits of the bird, and at no other time can its habits be studied to better advantage.

But resident birds begin building long before the migration is concluded. The Great Horned Owl lays in February, other birds