Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1885-08-19
STORMED BY THE BIRDS.
A Lighthouse Keeper OF Maine
Gives His Experience.
The Tower Bombardod with Birds at Night
and Hundreds Found Dead,

see and hear curious things, and rs for
monotony it's enough to drive one
mad, and has done SO in some cases.
Married men fare better, rs when wO-
men and children are around it isn't
quite 50 lonesome; but it's bad enough.
/ My station for number of years was
rock about 200 feet long and 100
feet wide, and in a gale of wind the
house stood right in the water, with
the seas rolling all round. Yes, it
was shazy.
zone night" continued the speaker,
IL remember some fishermen got
blowed off shore and came in there,
and what night it was About mid
night some one sings out, The lamps
out And so it was. Up we rushed,
half dozen of us, scared to death, as
ten minutes might cost a good many
lives and a vessel could come within
twenty foot of our house before she
struck. BY the time we got up we
found the place full Of smoke and
see something had fouled the chimney,
and what dye suppose 1t was ?
You'd never guess. 1t was blow
ing fit to take the buttons right off
your coat; but some one had to 60 out
side and climb up the rod on the very
top of the light and see what was the
trouble. 1t was close call and we
tossed for it. My mate drew and
started. We tied rope around him
and up he went and did the job. lie
came back alive, but with the whitest
face ever see on a live man. lie
said he wouldn't do it again for love
or money.
but what dye suppose he found in
the chimney, stuck fast? Nothing
more nor less than one of these ere
Mother Carey's chickens, iammcd in
rs tight as it could get, and dead, of
course. We get regularly pelted with
birds in the light, and that is the rea-
son the glass is made SO thick, as al
most every night one or two birds hit
against it. Sometimes in the spring
and fall hundreds of 'em will strike in
the course of II night. You see at
this time the birds are migrating and
flying off shore along the coast and on
foggy nights they only see the blaze
Of the light. They make a break for
ii and down they go, and in the morn
ing the rail, iron and glass will be all
blood and feathers
"You can hardly imagine such a
sight" said the lighthouse keeper. 81
remember one night late in september
there was what we call dry fog, the
kind that CLEANS and looks bright
sometimes without a light. | went
out ON the walk around the light,
thinking | heard II curious nciss, and
the minute got out L tell you twas
taken back. There were thousands of
birds, should say, darting about in
the luminous fog, with light dancing
Oh their backs and wings, 50 it re-
minded me of insects about a lamp.
The roar Of their wings and their cries
was such that You couldn't hear your
self speak, and hung on to the rail
almost crazy from the uproar. But l
came to mighty quick, | tell you, for
the first thing knew got Il knock
on the head, a bird taking Inc right
side of the neck; then, as | turned,
another struck me in the back and [
don't doubt but that Id have been
fairly bomDarded of if hadn't got in.
The birds kept it up all night, and in
the morning we counted over 600 dead
ut the foot of the lighthouse They
were of all kinds-sparrows, hawks,
robins and mostly duck and snlpc.
birds that travelled along tho shore
going south. You see, they had seen
the light and getting confused ran
right into it, One night we Were sit
ting at dinner, when the first thing
we knew the window went with q
crash, and some big thing came whi2-
zing and sprawlinS across the table,
hitting my man fairly in the chest and
knocking him clean ont of his chair.
1t was duck that had seen the light
and came a-pounding through the
window, dropping dead on the table.
"Wrecks sometimes come in, but it
amt often if the light is kept up In
one light was we got Slut up in a
gale of wind and had to stand right
by the light to keep it a-going; but
out it finally vent something got
, wrong with the machinery. After a
while we thought we heard Il YELL and
going down we managed to get out,
and there was a brig hard and fast
with her bowsprit stickinga good ten
foot over the rocks, and on it the crew
came ashore, jest like lrIdge, moi
vne of 'em getting lost. 1t WASH
our fault, as they couldn't have seer
! the light anyway, the sea was break
ing about the house so, and there wa
r such black fog running. Before TIT
| Boon Island Light was built Il crew
, came ashore there AMI starved Il
, death right in sight of land"
a The Noises of Tropical Forests.