Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-01-03
NO. 2.
miscellaneous.
THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

Familiar as the migration of birds is to
us 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 mys-
tcrions as they are interesting. We know
that most migrantes fly after sundown,
though many of them select a moonlight
night to cross the Mediterranean. But that
their meteorological instinct is not unerr
ing is proved by the fact that thousands
are every year 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
may he 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 bouses. The
swallow or the nightingale may sometimes
be DELAYED by unexpected circumstances,
yet it is rarely that they arrive or depart
many days sooner or later. one year with
another Professor Newton considered
that were sea-fowls satellites revolving
round the earth their arrival could hardly
be more surely calculated by an astrono-
mer Foul weather or fair. heat or cold,
the puffins repair to some of their stations
punctually on a given day as if their move
ments were regulated by clock-work. The
swiftness of flight which characterizes
most birds enables them to cover vast
space in a brief time The common black
swift flies 276 miles an hour, "a speed which,
if it could be maintained for less than half
In x,n,,1l tbr bird from ito win
ter to its summer quarters. The large
purple swift of America is capable of even
greater feats on the wing. The chimney
swallow is slower ninety miles an hour
being about the limit of its powers, but
the passenger pigeon of the United States
can accomplish a journey of n thousand
miles between sunrise and sunset. IL Is
also true, as the ingenious Herr Palman
has attempted to show. that migrants dur
ing their long flights are probably direct
ed by an experience partly inherited and
partly acquired by the individual bird.
They often follow the coast line of conti-
nents and invariable take, on their passage
over the Mediterranean. one of three
routes. But this theory will not explain
how they pilot themselves across broad
oceans. and is invaldated by the fact. IA
miliar TO every ornathol0glst. that the olu
and the Young birds do not journey in
company. Invariably the young bloods
travel together; then come after an inter
val. the parents. and finally the rear is
brought up by The weakly, infirm. molt-
ing and broken winged. This is the rule
in autumn The journey is accomplished
in the reverse order. The distance tray
elled seems. moreover, to have no relation
to the traveller. The Swedish bluethroat
performs its maternal functions among
the Lapps and enjoys the winter HOLIDAYS
among the negroes of the Soudan. while
the tiny, ruby-throated humming bird pro-
ceeds annually from Mexico to Newfound-
land and back again. though one would
imagine that so delicate a little fairy would
be more at home among the cacti and
agaves of the TERRA Calien.e than among
the frs and fogs of the north.