The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1881-01-22
THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.
Remarkable Swiftness of Birds on the
Wing.


The London ..Standayd in a recent is
sue says: Familiar as this migration of
birds is to us, there is, perhaps, no ques-
tion 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 Pc
riod 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 night
to cross the Mediterranean. But that
their meteorological instinct is not un-
erring is proved by the fact that thous-
ands are every year drowned in their
flight over the Atlantic and other oceans
Northern Africa and Western Asia are
selected rs winter quarters by most Of
them, and they may be often noticed on
their way hithcr to hang over towns at
night, puzzled, in spite Of their expert
cnce, by the shifting lights of the streets
and houses. The swallow or the night
ingale may sometimes be delayed by un-
expected circumstances. Yet it is rare
ly that they arrive or depart many days
sooner or later, one year with another.
Professor Newton considered that
were scafowl satellites revolving round
the earth their arrival could hardly be
more surely calculated by an astrono-
mcr. Foul weather or fair heat or cold,
the pufiins repair to some of their sta
tions punctually on given day, As il
their movements were regulated by
clock-work. The swiltneSs of flight
which charactcrizcs most birds enables
them to cover 4 vast space in 4 brief
time. The common black swift can hy
276 miles an hour, 4 speed which, il it
could maintain for less than half day,
would carry the bird from its winter to
its summer quarters. The large purple
swift of America is capable Of even
greater fcats on the wing. The chin
ney-swallow is slower--Oo miles per hour
being about the limits Of its powers -
but the passenger pigeon Of the United
States can accomplish journey of 900
miles between sunrise and sun set.
II is also true, rs the ingenious Herr
Palmcn has attempted to show, that mi
grants, during their long flight may be
directed by an experience partly inheri-
ted and partly acquired by the individ-
ual bird. They often follow the coast
lines Of continents, and invariably 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 inval-
dated by the fact, familiar to every or
nithologist, tha, the old and young birds
do not 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, infrm, moltng and broken
winged. The return journey is accom-
plished in the reverse order. The dis
tancc travelled, seems moreover, 10 have
no relations to the size of the traveller
The Swedish blue-throat performs its
maternal functions among the Laps,
and enjoys its winter holiday among the
negroes of the Soudan, while the tiny
ruby-throated humming bird proceeds
annually from Mexico TO Newfoundland
and back again, though one would i'm
agiac that so delicate little fairy would
be more At home among the cacti and
agaves Of the TERRA Caliente than among
the frs and fogs of the North.