The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-11-28

! see each Of these captured birds start
off at once in a Southern direction
when set free. Many of the birds fell
/ to the ground, some stunned and some
dead, after they had struch against the
statue or the granite base.
An extraordinary fact is that the
birds from Labrador and Canada
travelling by the sea coast seem to be
acquainted with the danger they run in
passing the Statue of Liberty, and,
year after year, it has been observed
that the number killed by impact with
this obstruction grows less.
One OF the ornithologists SAID to
me 81 am obliged to make an official
report of what | saw. Nevertheless
there are some points which | may
give you. The most interesting thing
OF all | noticed was the system of
signalling. The birds did not sing as
they do when living at their summer
and winter homes. Every one OF the
different focks seems 10 have a few
veteran leaders, each of which gives a
shrilI call when passing strange sights.
The call was invariably answered by
some birds in the rear, and it seemed
to me that the cries of the leaders
mean an order to close up and keep
together.
BUT NO SUMMER SONG THEN.
You know what delightful songster
the bobolink is, and how the kingfsher
laughs ana also scoldS in the creeks
throughout the summer; yet the bobo-
link utted only kind of a hoarse
shrek. As the ducks went by they
gave loud single quack, the robins
whiStled, but the little birds, notably
the vast family of warblers, had signals
OF their own as they swept by on the
gale past the flaming hand of the
goddess"
Another professor said to me: /
noticed that several birds interrupted
their journey and hung around the
light, but, at the first glimpse of dawn
they flew away In the same direction
where the main bodies had gone. /
find that night flyers are such birds as
live in bushes, and they never start on
a journey until after sunset, while the
day flyers Comprise birds living in the
open fields. These latter birds never
fly at night. 1t is my opinion that all
night flyers take their direction from
the stars, and not from the topography
of the county.
| do not think that | make an over
estimate when l say that the number
Of birds which annually kill themselves
by flying against lighthouses is about
100000. On dark nights the birds
get lost and will invariably fly to them.
Anotnt oember of the party said
to me: | find at this seq. sloeBS.~T--
year reed birds and rice blrds on +
nearly every bill of fare in the fashion,
able New YORK restaurants. Both of
these are no other than our friend, the
musical bobolink. When they leave
the North in the early fall they are
lean and their flesh is stringv and
dry. Millions of them, however, go to
the great marsh stretches of the Poto
mac, W ere they fatten among reeds,
eating all kinds Of seeds, worms, and
insects. Here they are slaughtered by
hundreds OF thousands and sent to the
market as reed birds. After a short
stay in the marshes they 20 to the
wild rice fields in the South and there
they are slaughtered again under the
name OF rice birds. But if you don't
mind my telling you SO, most of the
reed and rice birds you eat IN your
restaurants are English sparrowS,
thrushes, robins or other little war
blers.