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The Migration of Warblers
FIRST PAPER Compiled by Prolessot W. W. Cooke, chiefly tram Data in the Biological Survey
Wm. dvnulnz~ h, Luns Agassiz tha-ris and Butt}: HtinerL
EDITORIAL NOTE
’ I ‘HE series of papers of which this is the first will, we believe, prove one of the most helpful to field students of bird migration which has ever appeared in a periodicali Migrants in the truest sense of
the word, most of our Warblers winter in the tropics. and many of them breed in the Canadian zone. Twice a year, therefore, in surprising num- bers, they sweep by us journeying northward in the spring, alter the weather is comparatively settled. and with, consequently, remarkable regu- larity: and returning on their "due dates” in the fall in even greater abun~ dancer In short, without the Warblers a study of bird migration in the field would lose half its charm.
It is well known that for many years the Biological Survey in Washing- ton, under the direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, has been gathering data in relation to bird migrationr Professor Cooke's ‘ Bird Migration in the Nlississippi Valley' is based on data obtained in this manner, and is Bul- letin No. 2 of the Survey A second Bulletin by Professor Cooke on the routes of migration pursued by Warblers will be issued by the Survey during the coming year. ln the meantime Professor Cooke has kindly prepared for BIRD-LURE synopses of the migration dates of all the North American species of this family; and, in view of what has just been said, it will be readily understood how much more detailed and valuable this material will be than anything on the subject which has heretofore been published
Of the Redstatt, for example, Professor Cooke writes: "I believe that the enclosed notes on the Retlstart include the largest number of records ever accumulated for one species on this continent, The figures given represent 395 records selected from about as many more” With these records for comparison, it is needless to say that one's own observations will become doubly interesting and significant.
ln concluding the publication of these papers. we shall print a full list of all the observers whose work is cited, with their stations, enabling one readily to ascertain the authority for given datesiF, M, C.
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