The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-09
Other SPECIES of birds.

Other Species of Birds.
Some fifty species of birds, mainly polar,
are common to boA Europe and North
America. American birds going to Europe
are driven mainly by the agency OF the
winds, which seize them during the fall
migration, as they follow the Atlantic coast
southwark, or are blown across its great
curves, far from land and often far above the
ocean.
Carried out to sea, mainly in the latitude OF
450, the line of greatest intensity of the
winds, the first land they can make is
England while thousands perish in
the Atlantic Fifty species of American
birds have been taken in England, among
them the robin, meadow lark, swallow,
| cuckoo, brown thraSher, red-snouldeTed
blackbird, plover, swallows, warblers, and
swan, geese and ducks. That birds OF this
kind can fly across the sea without rest,
seems incredible; that they do so is as certain
as any fact OF observation. The golden
pover plies from New Foundland and Nova
Scotia to South America, across the West
Indies. great northeaster, at the end OF
August, drives incredible numbers OF
these birds to the New England
coast At such times they may be
carried to the interior States over the
Alleghenies, making a regular carnival for
the hunters, as is also sometimes the case
with the wild pigeon.
Whatever the nature of the impulse which
causes the bird or the fish, or the squirrel to
retrace its way SO unerringly every spring
the fact.is well-established one, and OF i'm
mense Importance in reference to the multi
! plication or dIminution of species,
A region deprived of its spring fishes by
nets or traps or of its spring birds by ruth
less determination, will only be filed up
again in long period of time. There is
nothing else in nature to compare
with this living wave of bird
! life, extending from ocean to ocean.
Rolling northwest from late April to middle
May go the thrushes and warblers, some
forty species. The hermit thrush is their
welcome courier; his note is heard in the
shady forests. Then come the less cautious
| ruby-crowned and golden-crested kinglets,
| thumb-sze and weak-voced. and the air-fill-
ing solo of the house-wren The concert thus
opened is added to by warbler after warbler
OF the April series. Then some early May
morning, with the summer breath and thick
opening blossoms, comes the long-tailed
brown thrasher or Northern hooking bird.
| He mounts the tip-top of some lonely
tree and pours forth a volume of song
full, sweet and various, and once heard never
| forgotten. The woods are now vocal; to the
| thrushes and warblers are added the sparrow
| hosts, some thirty or more Species many of
| them Incompatible in song or color. To these
we must add the fiute-like notes of Lord
| BaltlmoreS gorgeous oriole, like him, with
| black coat and orange vest and its ally the
| orchard oriole. The robin, the grOsbeak,
| the cat-brd and indigo bird the bobolink
| and meadow-ark swell the spring chorus.
/ The save of winged song goes on; itonly stops
| when the shores of arctic seas are reached.
The migrations of birds are north or south,
1 Influenced very materially by the river
| courses, mountain chains forests, altitude,
1 rairs and temperature.
| While birds go in the spring to the very
| spot of their birth, and by definite route
| their return in autumn is not necessarily in
| the same line. The diligent collector well
| knows that certain birds are in his locality
in either spring or fall, but not in the other
| seasons. In many instances the birds seem
| to go from South America to British or
arctic America by way of the Mississippi
| valley, and in the fall return by the Atlantic
coast TO South America again. The spring
| movement is generally performed much
more rapidly, and with fewer stops by the
way than the autumnal. They seem in quite
| a human hurry to get away from home
make love and raise their families; but once
through the brooding season, they return
| leiSurely with their progeny to their south
ern homes. One can almost tell the day of
the month in spring by the coming OF GER
tain birds. If there is difference of two or
three days, it is due to the season. The time
of autumnal return is less definite.
Often as with our humming bird, the
males will be a week ahead of the females or
vice versa. Many migrate mainly in the
night. as the warblers. These may be heard
whistling overhead at midnight. They stop
and feed in the early morning, rest through
the heat of the day, take their evening meal
and are off on the night train, 10 plunge
thirty or forty miles an hour through the
blackness of night toward the north star
And not more surely does the sun return
the fall, awaking the whole insect world
| from its winter torpor from Florida to
| Greenland, than the hest of warblers follow.
| They come with the spring insects and go
with the fall frosts