The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1886-03-26
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BIRD MIGRATION.
Winter Quarters Held by Birds Travelling
1000 Miles.

|
While the Southern California Winter
| is like the Eastern Spring, the birds fail
| to nest until the real Eastern Spring of
May and June comes around though
certain birds. the identity of which |
have not been able TO ascertain, live in
their nests during the present season.
These nests are models of ingenuity.
and are placed upon the top of the
prickly pear that is so carefully avoided
by all animals. The nests, and | have
found four or five within an area of
five feet, are bag-shaped, but built
lengthwise, lying parallel to the ground,
and having perfect piazza in front of
them, with u projecting cover. The
nests are carefully constructed of vari-
Gus vegetable matter, alsl made perfect
" water-tight, the interior being lined
with the softest material TO be found.
These nests are undoubtedly built in
May or June, but they are occupied by
some bird as home and refuge ut this
season. fact that is sustained by
many evidences.
The Southern California winter birds
are particularly welcome to Eastern pco-
pie, as here are innumcrablc forms with
which they are familiar in the extreme
North and East. Robins, whose repre-
sentatives nestled last Summer in the
apple orchards of the East, are now
spending the Winter among the orange
groves of this country; and among the
familiar forms are warblers and an in
finite variety of songsters. The instinct
that causes these myriads of forms to
mir IN ftxrinn f1x-in -
distances, has created much speculation.
The robin has been seen within the are
tic circle in the Summer and during the
Winter rs far south us Mexico, and one
of the smallest birds, a warbler, takes
n fight every year equaling, perhaps,
5000 miles.
What causes bird migration is some
what difficult TO determine, the lack of
food and the approach of-cold being the
principal agents. Whatever may be
the direct cause, it is fact that there is
every Fall general movement of birds
toward the South, and in the Spring
return. The majority of birds
make the entire trip from the OK.
treme North to the Gulf States, South
ern California and Mexico. Others,
as the crows, ETC., remain in the North
during the Winter, while others, again,
us jays, woodpeckers, etc, arc partial
migrators.
1t is somewhat of puzzle how young
birds find their way over the country to
the South and back to the same door
yard in the Spring; but that they do it
is well known. Robins build in the
same tree year after year, returning to
it in the Spring, perhaps after travelling
| 1000 miles, within few hours of their
arrival on the year previous. While it
is somewhat speculative how birds find
their way, it is evident that they follow
the great rivers. as the Mississippi, the
mountain ranges, rs the Coast Range
and the Rocky Mountains, and the coast
itself. The birds on the Eastern coast
are often blown out to sea, many reach
| ing Bermuda, and on the Pacific coast,
| even the most delicate of all, the hum
ming birds, are found on the Island of
Juan Fernandez, and all the islands of
the California coast arc resting places
for birds during their migrations. Some
birds, perhaps the majority, fly ut night.
| Astronomers have seen flocks three miles
| up in the air, moving onward so high
above the earth that IFS familiar mark
ings were spread before them like a
great map. From this habit of travelling
at night they often fall victims to var
ious objects. The lighthouses on this
coast, especially those where fogs pre-
vail, could tell strange story of the
myriads of delicate feathered victims that
dash against the light on misty nights.
In Eastern waters often a hundred
birds will be found in the morning at
the foot of the lighthouse, and on y
light near Denmark (HeligolanD, that
stands i'm the track of one of the great
European lines of bird migration, great
heaps of birds are often found by the
keeper in the morning. The sustaining
power of birds is well shown in the fact
that have seen birds of many kinds
aiight on the extreme outer keys of the
! Florida reef. They were blown out by
northers. showing that they had. flown
across tho Gulf of Mexico. AT such
times they are very tame, alighting upon
vessels. A friend tells mo that he has
often had birds alight on his boat when
fishing ten miles of shore. sparrow,
even, alighting on his head.
In Los Angeles, in the FALL when the