Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-04-21
The Migration And Usefulness of Gu
Birds,
PROF. r. II. KING.

During the winter months, save the
partridge, prairie chicken, quail and
few other species, Wisconsin has no birds.
But as soon as bare ground begins to ap-
pear and the warm rays of the sun to
loosen the soil, setting free beetles and
caterpillars, SO soon there appears among
us the robin, the bluebird and the gull
Where did they come from? Early in
April the little brown creepers art clam
bering like woodpeckers over tree trunks
and limbs, the purple fnches are plucking
buds from various trees, and the golden
crowned kinglets are driving a vigorous
business among the village shade trees. in
groves and In thickets bordering marshes
and streams, but in about thirty days
these have vanished as mysteriously as
they came. Then come the early May
mornings, and somehow with them that
wonderful group of woodland warblers,,
clad in inapproachable wedding robes,
evolved during the centuries in the soli
tudes of American forests. But in about
three weeks nearly every species of this
beautiful train vanish. Year after year
they come and go as regularly as the tides.
But the warblers do not reach US alone.
With them come the swallows, the green
lets and many of the inches as we'll as
numerous other species, some to remain
during the summer to build their nests
and rear their young, while others pause
fer day and then hasten on.
On the other side of summer, during
the later days of September and early Oc-
tober, these birds which come suddenly in
the spring and as quickly vanish again re-
appear but only TO set off in a few short
days.
These sudden appearances and disap-
pearances of birds have, from the earliest
periods, attracted the attention of people
both civilized and uncivilized. So stoutly
and persistently has it been affirmed that
swallows hibernate in the mud at the bot
tom of ponds and streams, as frogs do,
that it is still believed to be the fact by
Europe; and yet it is a we'll established
fact that the great majority CT birds in the
cold and temperate zones of the northern
hemisphere make longer or shorter jour
neys regularly twice each year.
Every spring vast throng of feathered
forms turn their faces poleward to repopu
late nearly full third of the land and
shore waters of the northern hemisphere.
With heads full of plans, breasts full of
feeling and threats full of song, they turn
their backs upon the sunny south with all
its luxnriance, and move, like great
army, out of South and Central America,
out of the Caribbean islands, out of Africa
and out of India with its adjacent islands,
toward frozen lands and frozen seas.
The distances over which birds migrate
vary between wide limits and are often
surprisingly great, especially when we
consider the small size of some of these
animated beings which transport them
selves twice each year across the interval
between their homes. The bobolinks,
which rear their young on the shores of
Lake Winnipeg and then go with them to
Cuba and Porto Rico to spend the winter,
must twice traverse distance exceeding
$500 rliles, or more than fifth of the cir
conference of our earth each year. The
kipgbird breeds as far north as the 57th
degree Of latitude, and is found in the
winter in South America. The biennial
pilgrimages of the little redstart exceed