The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-03-12
WINGED WANDERERS.
Where the Beautiful Wild Birds
DO to Pass the Winter.

Some Of the Airline Routes of Travel
Observation-Disclosures Instincts OF the
Fea,hered Songsters-Uusuc
cessful Experiments.
In the course of the last fifty years
considerable number of European song
birds have been turned loose in the
woods and gardens Of the new world
but. with rare exceptions, they all dis
appeared before the end of the second
winter, says a writer in the San Fran
cisco Chronicle. Only four out OF fifty
English larks brought to Maryland in
1879 were seen the next spring, and no
nightingale has as yet managed to sur
vive an American blizzard
The failure of those experiments
may, however, be due to the circum'
stance that the assisted immigrants
were taken to the wrong side Of the
Rocky mountains. Like the Gascon
farmer who hoped to find the climate of
southern France in southern Michigan
they owed their ruin to a misapplica-
ton of geographical facts. A trip of
SIX lOnOTGu ull1SS VIII d Id ItASu
bird to an almost winterless zone.
The birds Of our Pacific coast forests,
on the other hand, have no cause to
envy their European relatives, The
pine thrush of British Columbia passes
the winter in Mendocino county. and
has been seen as far south as Lake Ma
leila in the redwoods of Monterey. but
most of our California wood birds man.
age to dispense with lengthy winter
migration. Thrushes stick to the tim.
Der zone, and our woodpeckers rarely
stray beyond the hills Of Napa county
Our California blue birds, however, love
sunshine too much to enjoy the winters
of the tim Der - unties" and are apt to
get rather numerous on Monterey bay
after the end Of October
The migratory birds of the eastern
states have curious habit of following
established routes of travel. Countless
thousands of water birds. for instance,
cross the Mexican border near the
mouth of the Rio Grande, probably to
avoid the broad sand wastes that skirt
the upper river valley Farther east
there is brncl1ish estuary almost de"
void of islands, SO that the lagoons OF
the delta afford the only convenient
resting place for legions Of swamp-lov-
ing wanderers. A similar bird trap is
found in low gap Of the Sierra Nevada
near the eastern border OF Plumas
county. The feathered inha bitants Of
Colorado and Nevada could reach the
tropics only by a two thousand mile
trip across barren tab1e-lands without
water and wood, SO some Of them have
found it the best plan to follow
Horace Greeley's advice and enjoy
the comforts of a protracted indian
summer by going west
A few species OF eastern woodbirds
come to grief in trying to pass the win
ter in the southern Alleghanies. Robins,
for instance, flock by thousands to the
hill country of eastern Alabama, where
they fit about the woods in quest of
cedar berries and are killed in such
numbers that in the course of years
they will become as scarce as the trav-
cling pigeons of the Mississippi valley,
Some of our shy woodbirds avoid hui
man habitations in their wanderings,
dear and pass the winter in the swamp
forests Of Yucatan, or even farther
south, in the painless woods Of Guiana
and eastern Brazil. Belgian noble
man once managed to catch two hun
tlred stor:1s and labeled every one Of
them with a piece OF pasteboard giving
the address Of the experimental and re-
questing to inform him where the bird
had been caught Or killed during the
winter season. These curious passports
were attached in a conspicuous manner
to the neck or leg of the birds, and one
of them returned next spring with
message to the effect that he had been
caught in meadow near Sidi Belbez,
in western Algeria. Two years after
another of the original tickets came
back by mail with a note stating that
the winged messenger had been shot at
Fort George, near the mouth of the
Senegal.
Cranes, storks and wild geese fly fast
enough to make the trip from northern
Europe to Africa in a week. but most OF
them take a midway rest north of the
Mediterranean. The reed swamps of
the Guadiana river, in northern Spain,
are all alive with migratory birds in
November, and the waterfowl Of north
ern Russia winter on the shores of the
Caspian. wher snowstorms may occur
now and then, but where water-birds
are, on the whole, much better off than
on the desert coasts farther south.
A few years ago the owner of a river.
side farm in southern Indiana pub
lished a report which seemed to prove
that, for a few weeks at least birds OF
certain species are apt to hibernate,
like bats and squirrels. A number OF
laborers had been clearing a patch OF
wood at the river shore and came across
several martins or chimney swallows
that had taken refuge in hollow sycar
more tree and appeared numb or half
dead with cold, but on being brought to
warm room revived and huttered
about the windows as if nothing had
happened. No similar fact has, how
ever, been reported by competent OBJ