The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-12-09
Tho Migration Of Birds.

The London Standard has an interesting
article upon this subject. Familiar" il
says, las the migration of birds is to us, there
is perhaps no question in zoology more 90
scure. The long flights they take and the
unerring certainty with which they wing
their way between the most distant places,
arriving and departing at the same period
year after year, arc points in the history Of
birds OF passage rs mysterious as they are
interesting. We know that most migrants
fly after shutdown, though many of them
select moonlight aight to cross the Medi.
terranesn. But that their meteorological in
stnct Is not unerring is proved by the fact
That thous 'nds are every year drowned in
their flight over the Atlantic and other
oceans. Northern Africa and western Asia
are selected MS wi ter quarters by most Of
them. and they may DO often noticed on
their way thither to hang over towns al
night, puzzled, in spite Of their exp rence,
BY the shifting lights Of the streets and
3 houses. The swallow or the nightingale may
sometimes be delayed by unexpected circum.
stances. Yet it i, rarely that they arrive or
depart many days sooner or LATER one year
with another.
professor Newton considered that we're sea
fowls satellites revolving round the earth
their arrival could hardly be more surely
calculated by an astronomer. Foul weather
or fair, heat or cold, the pufins repair to
some OF their stations puuctuslly on given
gay, as if their movements were regulated
by clockwork. The swftness of fight which
charscterizes most birds enables them to
cover vast space in brief time. The
common black swift can ay 276 mile. an
nour, speed which, if it could BIO maintained
iCr less than half dayp would carry the
olrd from its winter to its summer quarters.
Inc large purple swift of America is csps-
Ole of even greater tCats on the wing. The
Gaimney swallow is slower, ninety miles an
hour being about the limit of its pow
eerS; but the passenger pigeon OF the
united States can accomplish journey of
1000 miles between sunrise and sunset. 1t
Is also true, as the ingenious Herr P.lmen
mas attempted to chow, that migrants during
'her long flights may DO directed by an e1-
Perence partly inherited and partly acquired
.oy the Individual bird. They often follow
.ne coast lines Of continents, and invariably
ake on their passage over the Mediterranean
one Of three routes. But this theory will not
Explain how they pilot themselves aero"
SSe0ad oceans, and is invalidated by the fact
familiar 10 every ornitholegist that the old
md young birds do not journey in company.
Invariably the young brood, travel together;
men come, after ali interval, the parents
aud finally the rear is brought up by the
weakly, intirm, moulting and broken winged
ms is the rulp in autumn. The return
journey is accomplished in the reverse order.
me distance travelled seems, however,to have
no relation to the size of the traveller. The
swedish blue-tbroat performs its maternal
functions among the Lapps and enjoys the
SS'hter holidays among the negroes of the
sn'oudan, while the tiny, ruby.throsted hum.
MMng bird proceeds annually from Mexico to
newfoundland and back again, though one
S would imagine that so delicate little fairy
Would be moro at home among the cact and
fssaves the TERRA Caliente than among the
, lre and fogs Of the north.