The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-11-27

found after a stormy dark night. This
would seem to show that the danger of be-
Ing ailured by the briiHancy Of the goddess
torch Is becoming known to ell the Atlantic
coast birds Of passage.
One of the most interesting things iu con-
nectlon with these night-1ying birds Is the
apparently perfect system Of signaling that
they maintain when sometimes they are
half mile high in the air. They seem to
have arranged code OF signals by whistling.
The note is, Of course, peculiar to the bird
and is used among other notes when sing
| Ing, but for the purposes Of signaling this
| note is only used. The bobolink, for in-
stance, who has wide range of song when
on the passage, has but one cry, and he ad-
vises the main body of any threatened
danger BY whistling sphinx, sphinx"
The birds that lead the main body are
veterans, who may have made the march
north and south for half dozen years. The
| signal Of the wild goose is a loud 'honk. I"
The king-f1sher, who chatters in his summer
| creek, and scolds 30 that you might almost
imagine that he was human being, SIM
ply gives a scream or single resonant note
which keeps his forces together. The thrush
| and the robin each gives a single shrill
whistle, which can be heard across a storm
at night for a distance of nearly a mile.
These birds are all great travellers. Some
OF them travel every spring and fall from
the shores OK Hudson bay, from Labrador
and even Greenland to the Tropic of Capri
corn, distance of 5000 miles.
The massing of these forces in the early
fall is very curious aud highly interesting.
Not a single bird starts southwark until the
cutting northern winds begin to pipe. Then
| all the families or broods for miles around
begin to collect until hundreds and some
times thousands get together and form into
body on the edge Of a wood. Here the
younger birds wheel, and scream, and frolic,
chasing each other through the air; but the
| elders appear sedate and seem to be waiting
to collect together every bird that should
join in the march.
1t has long been a matter Of conjecture as
to how these birds can make their way at
| night, but it has been held latterly by the
best ornithologists that they are guided by
the stars. This is proved from the fact that
on clear nights they fly often to a hight of
three miles, and at that distance it would
be utterly impossible for them to be guided
by the topography OF the route Moreover,
when the stars are covered the birds become
bewildered and have at once to seek the
ground.
The captain of a schooner trading be-
tween Prince Edward Island and New
foundland told the writer how, on one occa-
sion, he had left the Newfoundland coast
with q steady northeaster which blew
straight across the gulf, bnt, after being
out short time, the wind veered and blew
from the south and it became very foggy
On the morning of the second day the crew
were surprised TO find about fifty wild geese
on the deck of the vessel, some of them
clinging to the matches, deck or wherever
they could get hold.
Now, a wild goose never starts out for q
journey across the sea unless the wind is
fair. and it will then start in the day but
not In the night. These birds must fly by
the stars, because they would have no other
guide for six or seven hundred miles Of
water. Sometimes, however, the wind
veers, and as a wild goose will not alight In
the sea, 1t takes refuge on the first object
that comes in sight.
Hundreds of thousands of little wood
birds every year, In flying across the gulf.
get out of their course in the dark and
storm, become exhausted and are drowned