Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-13
QUEER DEATHS OF BIRDS.
Lives of Members of the Fenthered
Tribe Filled With Tragedies.

Lives of Members of the Feathered
Tribe Filled With Tragedies.
From the Chicago Tribune.
Death in curious forms lies in the path
of the birds that are now in the height of
their annual migration to the north. Few
persons realize the dangers which await
the winged visitors as they fly in the night
or the many mechanical accidents that be-
fall them after they have reached their
MINER homes. The lives of birds are
filed with tragedies.
No more faulty comparison than "as
happy as a bird" was ever made. The man
who wrote Il would 1 were a bird and
gave as reason for ''wouldng' the joy
burdened lives of the winged creatures
krew more about musical sentimentalism
than he did about natural science. Brad
foid Torrey has said that two birds die
annually for every one that survives. Take
a rowboat on any morning succeeding d
foggy night in the month of April and row
to tie lighthouse off the mouth of the
river and YOU can pick up from its base
the bodies of score; of birds which have
dashed themselves to death against the
glass that protects and magnifies the flame
OF powerful lamp. Birds OF all kinds fly
not infrequently against the tower or the
Auditorium and fall dead to the roof below
The Masonic Temple claims its victims by
the hundreds, especially when its towering
g.ass-inclosed roof is Illuminated
On clear nights the birds in their north
ward fight seem to be able to direct their
course without accident. but the instant
that a fog closes down they become be-
wildered and. like the helmsman OF mist
shrouded ship. they make their way toward
the nearest light. which to the one means
safety and the other death.
Birds have become accustomed to many
of the eppurtenances of civilization Those
which have been shot at once or nave seen
their kind shot at know gun as far as
they can see it. They will all but perch on
the shoulder of an unarmed man, but will
keep a ten acre lot between them and
man with breachloader. Glass, however
when there Is light shining through 1T, is
something which the most acute bird as
yet fails to understand. The oven bird,
sc sometimes called the solden-crowned
thrush. one Of the most common species
is constantly dashing against window
panes, always to his discontinue and fire.
Quently to his death. II
One of these birds one day brought up
against window of Marshall Fields
store. 1t recovered itself but In Its be-
wilderment it left the window. only to ny
into the crowded mart through an open
door. 1t was caught and Gagged, at whlch IT
promptly and very properly dled. All caged
birds ought to die I'M self-defense. The
Audubon society says that death for the
songsters is infinitely preferable to impris-
onment, and there are few bird-iovers who
will try to gainsay the society's dictum.
A kinSfSher not long ago tried to fly into
the Academy Of Schemes by way or
closed window. This shock killed him. He
now stands. stuffed with cotton and ar
senic looking out of the Very window
against which he hurled himself to de-
Struction.
A great hawk. known as the red tall,
came to his death at Highland Park the
other day after a peculiar manner. Death
overtakes birds in many ways. but 1t is
doubtful if stranger fate than was this
hawks ever overlook one of the feathered
kind. The. bird of prey was found hang
ing by the upper tendons OF his left wing
TO barb on the lower strand of barbed
wire fence. The creature. with the fierce
rush through the air characteristic OF his
kind. was pursuing its quarry, probably
struck the fence with terrific force. The
barb entered the skin and tendons of the
wing and held the bird fast. Such was
the impetus acquired from the force OF the
flight that the birds body swung round
the fence strand two or three times.
fact shown by the twisted condition OF the