Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-19
THE VIBRATIONS OF BIRDS.
M aryelous Speed of the SwaIIow-9'Ise
flight In Search of New Food SUP.
plies.

Among all the migrants the swallow
has, perhaps, attracted most attention
IN all ages and countries, says writer
in the Edin burgh Review. 1t arrives
IN Sussex villages with remarkable
punctuaIlty; none of the migrants
perform their journeys more rapidly
than the swallows and Their congeners.
q swift with young ones, or during
migration, covers from 1, 500 to 1000
miles day. It begins business feed
ing It's young about o'clock A. NJ,
and continues it till 9 P. M. At that
SEASON, therefore, the swift spends
nearly eighteen hours upon the wing,
and 1t has been com puted that at
the ordinary rate of travelling Of this
very fast bird 1t would circumnavigate
the globe in about fourteen DAYS. AT
s push, II 1t were making forced
Nights, the swift would probably keep
| on the wing, with very brief intervals
OF rest, during fourteen days. The
speed of the whole tribe is marvellous,
and seems the more SO when compared
with that of the swiftest of animals
that depend for their progressive
powers on legs, however many legs
they may be furnished with. The
hare IS swift yet in Turner's we'll
known picture of rail-, steam. and
speed the hare's fate is sealed; she
Will be run over and crushed By the
engines rushing Ia her wake. The
s~ftest animal would soon break
! down st forty miles an hour, which
the swallow unconsciouslv accom-
phshes, merrily twittering all the
while. All the swallow tribe are
!ound IN every part of Great Britain,
including Shetland, excep the swift,
whlch is not found in those islands.
DR.. Saxby, author OF Birds of Shet-
lana, says one day a poor fellow, a
cripple, who happened at the time to
De exceedingly Ill off and in want of
1000, came to him with a swallow in
MS hand. The doctor ordered the
man some dinner. 1t seems he had
opened his door, restless and half
famlshed, when in flew the swallow
ana brought him. so to speak, a din
ner. After this, said the poor fell
low. folks need not tell me that the
Lord does not answer prayer" The
swallow can hardly be inelegant.
When it walks, however, it does so
with particularly short steps, assisted
by the wings, and in accomplishing
any journey longer than few inches
II spreads 1t wings and takes flight
LIZ tWItters both on the wing and on
the nest, and more incessant, cheer.
tu,l, amiable, happy little song no
other musician has ever executed.
Much has been said of that ''inexplic-
able longing" and ''incomprehensible
pfesentlment of coming event" which
occasion binds to migrate from certain
districts before the food supplies be-
gin to fail. Quails, woodcocks, snipes,
ana many other birds it is is said, are
III the finest condition at the time of
commencing their migration, while
none OF them are emaciated at that
season, SO that the pinch OF hunger,
II is argued, can not have yet affected
them. But it should be remembered
that fat, as well as lean, birds may
feel that plnch, and that birds are very
last living creatures, full of life,
movement, and alertness, quick to
observe, tC feel, and 10 act. In the
rapid digestion of their food they are
assisted by special organ which
grlnds, down such items as grain,
nalls.or needles, swallowed la mistake
or from caprice or curiosity, with as
tonishing facility. They prefer feed
ing nearly all day, and when fully
crammed they sometimes become IS
plump, as ortolans, or as well fed
qualls, whose skin bursts when they
fall to the gun. But when the ap-
petite is urgent, obesity does not
by any means preclude hunger.
Twelve hours fast and snow and
change of wind are very urgent facts
IN the lives of these quick creatures in
the autumn of the year, and then be
gins that sudden migration which the
ighthouse-keeper have observed. tt
Is impossible to imagine creatures
more practical AID full of action and
freer from 'presentiments" than birds
engaged as they are from day to day
snatching their food at natures board.
Perhaps we may compare them to the
guests of Macbeth, since all goes we'll
so long as the ghost abstains from
making It's appearance; but very sud-
denly sometimes, in the case OF the
northern birds, the specter of hunger
puts them to flight. Fat Or lean, they
must go on the instant, and that is
why they arrive pell-mell upon our
coast; but, as the country to be clear
ed of It's birds Of summer is extensive,
and the distance of the journeys are
various, they naturally arrive at in
tervals. The migration of birds is
world wide. The birds of North Am
erica make corresponding movements
to those Of northern Europe, travel
ing In northeasterly and southwest
erly direction. and at the same seasons.
The countries of the Gulf of Mexico
form the chief retreat of the North
American migrants, especially Mexico
itself, with its three zones and great
variety of climate But some of them
GO as far as the West Indies and New
Granada. A great number winter in
the southern states. Their method of
migration is the same as that which
has been described elsewhere. They
follow the routes marked out By ma
ture. The kinds of birds are in many