Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-11-07
MIGRATION OF BIRDS.
Mysterious Instinct That Leads Them 40
curately Through Vast Distances.

Mysterious Instinct That Leads Them 40
curately Through Vast Distances.
The instinct which guides young
bird, without either experience or the
help of its parents, across vast expanses
of land and eIater to the winter quarters
of its species has been described by the
greatest naturalist and sage of modern
times as ''the unknown power. " While
the necessity of obtaining an adequate
amount of food is undoubtedly an i'm
portant factor in the cause of migration,
it can only have a partial operation, in
asmuch as the spring journey north
ward is commenced from country
teeming in many cases with desirable
supplies. Another inexplicable phenome-
non, which proves conclusively that
neither food supplies nor climatic diff
culties create the impulse for change, is
furnished by the cross migration which
goes on regularly during the autumn be-
tween this country and the continent
among birds of the same species.
Some idea Of the great power under
lying the impulse to migrate may be
gained when it is mentioned that swal-
lows have been known to perish rather
than forsake their young in a fire, yet
they will leave their second callow
brood in obedience to this mysterious
instinct The force that is stronger than
the devotion of motherhood must indeed
be great! There is no evidence to prove
that any of our summer visitors breed
in their winter quarters with the excep-
ton of the sand martin, so that doubt
less the mere desire to perpetuate the
species governs the flight north. This
theory is based upon the fact that, while
the flight south is led by young birds of
the year, the journey north in the spring
is led by old ones that have already
known the joys and cares of parenthood.
Marked swifts have been known to
build in the same chimney seven years
in succession. Birds have marvellous
faculty for calculating time, as is prov
ed by the fact that some species arrive
and take their departure to day, and
this without reference to the weather,
although it has been ascertained that
they dislike following wind as much
as head wind, ON account of the dis
arrangement it causes among their fly
ing and steering feathers. Why the
kingouzel sometimes migrates singly
and at others in flocks is as inexplicable
as the local limitations of the nightin-
gale. The latter bird does not extend its
range farther west than the valley of
Exc nor much farther north than York.
Birds are wonderfully conservative in
their migratory routes, the quails pur-
suing the same course today as when
they "came up and covered the camp
of the Israelites !" These great aerial
highways are neither the nearest nor
the safest to and from their winter re-
sorts, according to mans Judgment, but
there is strong geological authority for
supposing that their far distant pro-
genitors flew over narrow necks of land
where water now exists. In clear wealth
er birds perform their migratory flights
at immense attitudes, but in dull wealth
er, when neither moon nor star is visi-
BILE, they fly low, and their ranks are
thinned by enormous losses. London
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