Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-11-29
The Birds Moving Time.

The Birds Moving Time.
The fall is the time Of year when
hundreds of thousands Of birds migrate,
by night and by day, in large battal-
ions from the frost-bound North down
to the sunny South These migrations
form one Of the most interesting stu
dies of ornithologists, who tell us that
the little voyagers make their long jour
ney with the precision and discipline Of
an army on the march. They have
their advance and rear guards, while
The main body is kept compact. OF
course there are stragglers who are una
bic to keep up with their companions,
but these fall out Of the ranks, and un-
less they perish make their way as best
they can to their destination.
Now that cold weather has set in at
the North. millions of birds of almost
every species are on the wing for the
South. They are travelling along the
same high roads over which they have
passed from time immemorial. Some
of them go in vast congregations down
the valley Of the Mississippi, and will
not on any account depart from that
route until they reach their winter
abiding-placc. Others skirt along the
fringe OF the Rocky Mountains, thou
sands and thousands in flock, halting
ct any stopping-place, so long as the
weather is mild, and, when it is cold
again, rising high into the air
with tumult of noises and continuing
their southward march.
One of the most interesting things in
connection with the night-llying birds
is the APPARENTLY perfect system of sign
alling that they maintain when some
times they are half mile high in the
air. They seem to have arranged q
code of signals by whistling. The note
is of course, peculiar TO the bird, and is
used among other notes when singing,
but for the purpose of signalling this
note only is used. The bobolink, for
instance, which has wide range of
song, when on the passage has but one
cry, and he advises the main body of
any threatened danger by whistling
sphinx, sphinx"
The birds that lead the main body
are veterans who have made the march
north and south for half dozen years.
The signal of the wild goose is loud
'shonk.n The llingiisher, who chatters
in his summer creek and scolds so that
you might almost imagine that he was
human being, simply gives a scream
or a single resonant note, which keeps
his forces together The thrush and
the robin each give q single shrill
whistle, which can be heard across q
storm at night for distance of nearly
a mile. These birds are all great ira
vellers. Some Of them travel every
spring and fall from the shores of Hud-
son Bay. from Labrador and even
Greenland. to the tropic of Cap
ricorn, distance Of 6,000 miles.
The massing Of these forces in the
early fall is very curious and highly in
teresting. Not single bird starts
southwark until the cutting northern
winds begin to pipe. Then all the FAM
lies or broods for miles around begin to
collect, until hundreds, and sometimes
thousands, get together and form into
body on the edge of Il 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 to-
gether every bird that should join in
the march.
It has long been a matter Of conjcc-
ture rs to how these birds can make
their way at night, but it has been held
latterly by the oest ornitho!ogists that
they are guided by the stars. This is
proved from the fact that on clear
nights they fly often to height 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
occasion, he had left the Newfoundland
coast with steady northeaster, which
blew straight across the gulf, but, after
being out short time, the wind veercd
and blew from the south and it became
very foggy. On the morning ofthe sec
ond 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, wild goose never starts out
for a journey across the sea unless the
wind is fair, and it will then startin the
day, but not in the night These birds
must fly by the stars, because they
would have no other guide for 600 or
700 miles of water. Sometimes, how
ever, the wind veers, and as a wild
goose Will not aliSht in the sea, it takes
refuge on the first object that comes in
sight.-N. Y. Recorder.