The record-union., 1893-02-23
AIRLINE TRAVELLERS.
Winged Emigrants and Their Curious
Habits.
Their Wayside Adventures-The Prey
of Pot-Hunters-A Surprise
Party.

The naturalist Audubon held that birds
are the true favorites of nature, and
founded that theory on the fact that "the
voices of our four-footed fellow creatures
are mostly symbols of sorrow, while
nearly all bird notes are expressive Of
joy"
1t might be remarked that the most lu-
gubrious sound in nature is the wall of
the hooting-owl, but it cannot be denied
that the faculty of migration gives birds
an almost unfair advantage over the run
ming and crawling creatures of the will
derness. Even the woods of British
North America give birth to winged ram
blers. that do not know the meaning Of
winter. They leave early in October and
do not return before May or the begin
ming of June.
Few species of migratory birds encoun-
ter any typographical difficulties as long
as they can keep the landmarks of terra
| tirma in sight. anu America, with all
its climatic vicissitudes, is for that reason
the paradise OF the feathered tribe. Its
continuous continent, reaching from the
| higher latitudes of both hemisphereS to
the summer-land of the tropics, gives the
winged pilgrims a chance for numerous
HAIL W eiN lCSlS db Il Lllllt VI LLle year MlGil
the Mediterranean and its treacherous
coastlands prove the grave of myrads of
short-Hight birds. The passengers of the
steamers skirting the coast Of Africa be-
tween SueZ and the west European sea-
port towns often witness the curious
spectacle Of tlocks of thrushes and tinches
alighting on the rigging, and continuing
their flights after short rest. They are
hailed as harbingers of fair weather and
rarely molested, even if they drop eX-
hauSted on the deck, but the sailors of
Southern European merchantmen are
less scrupulouS, and in the coastlands of
Italy, Greece, Dalmatia, Spain and
Southern France every bush bristles with
| bird-snares, and Professor H. I. Matthew
estimates that in the Department Of Her.
ault between Marseilles and Grenoble)
alone some SO0,000 small birds are killed
every year for the sake of their feathers.
The Italian pot-hunters swallow the
very swallows, and in the coast plains of
Naples many species of song birds have
become almost extinct, and the harvest
| season of the fowler is limited to the
months of November and March, when
vast tiocks of winged emigranls arrive
/ from the woodlands of the far north, or
from their winter resort in the oases of
sunny Africa.
In America the hat-feather craze has.
happily, never spread TO the rural dis
( tricts, and pot-hunters generally stick to
squirrels and rabbits, though in the
neighborhood of huntsville, Ala, the
darkies play havoc with the robin
sWarms which, on their way to the South,
loiter i'll the foothills of the Cumberland
Mountains.
There is a similar midway station near
Dahlonega, in the Georgia Blue Ridge,
and 1t seems, indeed, that migratory birds
have 1avorite lines OF travel, and with the
obstinacy ofhereditary habits continue to
choose them in preference TO safer routes
IN the Alps they always select the lowest
gap. Northeast of Salzburg there is a
highland valley which in October is olten
invaded by bird armies resembling the
| locust swarms of the East, and the Hun
gari2n peasants travel scores of miles to
intercept the 1iocks OF quail that cross the
Carpathian Mountains in the neiphbor-
hood of the BAHIA Cora Cass.
On the sea coast, too, there are points
which appear TO serve as landmarks to
airline pilgrims, or as resting places to
those in need OF refreshment, especially
where long stretches of desert shores are
here and there broken by the delta OF
perennial stream. Migratory quail fre-
Quent such localities, and often are caught
in numbers bewildering their captors
with an enlbG7rGS de richeSSe, and sur
feiting the local epicures till they would
prefer the mamma alternative of the chill
dren OF Israel.
Strong-wlnged waterfowl generally
avoid such dangers by long-distance
trips through realms of space inaccessible
to the missiles of the'pot-hunter. Cranes
have been known to fly for hours at
hight of 5000 feet NEARLY an English milel
and rise still higher where they cross a
mountain range dotted with signs of hui
man habitation. In Northwestern Eu-
rope, where winter sets in about the
middle of November, wild geese, flying
in triangular swarms, can sometimes be
seen at a hight making it difficult to
identify their species without the aid of
telescope. on sunny days of the season
corresponding with our Indian summer,
swarms of that kind will rise in sight and
cross the zenith as slowly and steadily as
drifting clouds, but soon fading away in
the distance, unless their trumpet voices
verge Of the horizon should betray their