Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-12-29
Migration of Birds.

Familiar as the migration Of birds is, there
is, perhaps. no question in zoology more
obscure. 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, are points in the history of
birds of passage AS mysterious as they are
interesting. We know that most migrants
fly after sundown, though many Of them
select a moonlight ight TO cross the Nediter :
ranean. But that their meteorological
instinct is not unerring is proved by the fact
that thousands are drowned in their flight
over the Atlantic and other oceans. Northern
Africa and Western Asia are selected as
winter quarters by most Of them, and they
NAV be often noticed on their way thither to
hang over towns at night, puzzled in spite Of
their experience, by the shifting lights Of the
streets and houses. The swallow or the
nightingale may sometimes be delayed by un-
expected circumstances. Yet II is rarely that
they arrive or depart many days sooner or
later, one year with another. Prof Newton
considered that were sea fowl satellites re-
volring round the earth their arrival could
hardly be more surely calculated by an
astronomer. Foul weather or fair, heat or
cold the putiins repair to some Of their
stations punctually on given day, as If their
movements were regulated by clock-work.
The swftness of fight which characterizes
most birds enables them to cover n vast space
in brief time. The common black swift
can fly 216 miles in an hour, speed which,
If il could be maintained for less than half a
day. would carry the bird from its winter to
its summer quarters. The large purple
swift of America is capable Of even greater
feats on the wing. The chimney-swallow is
slower-nnety miles per hour being about
~. -. IL
pigeon of the United States can accomplish q
journey of 1000 miles between sunrise and
sunset. II is also true, as the ingenious Herr
Palmen has attempted to show, that migrants
during their long flights may be directed by
an experience partly inherited and partly
acquired by the individual bird. They often
follow the coast line of continents, and in
variably take, on their passage over the
Mediterranean, one of three routes. But this
theory will not explain how they pilot them
selves across broad oceans. and is invalidated
by the fact familiar to every 0rnithologist,
that the old and young birds do the journey
in company. Invariably, the young broods
travel together, then come after an interval,
the parents; and, finally the rear, is brought
up by the weakly. infirm. moting and
broken-winged. This is the rule in autumn.
The return journey is accomplished in the
reverse order. The distance travelled seems.
moreover, to have no relation to the size of
the traveller. The Swedish blue-throat per.
forms its maternal functions among the Laps,
and enjoys its winter holiday among the
negroes of the Soudan, while the tiny ruby
tbroated humming bird proceeds annually
from Mexico to Newfoundland and back
again. though one would imagine that SO
delicate a little fairy would be more at home
among the cacii and agaves Of the TERRA
Caliente than among the frs AMI fogs Of the
north. - London Times