The times., 1898-12-25
BIRDS That MIGRATE.
Many Fly Thousandx OF Niles Twice
Each Near.
From the Boston Ieurnai.) }


One OF the principal reasons for all the
apparent mystery which surrounds the
migration OF birds TO tilis, day Is that they
generally arrive and also take their de-
parture at night, and even when forced TO
travel by day, fly at such a height that
they are Invisible to the snaked eye. In
spite of the great attention paid to this
phenomenon in all agesSit is only during
the last thirty or forty years that real
light has been thrown on the subject by
the efforts OF such men as Seebohm, Har-
Brown. Katke and others, says the
Nineteenth Century,
We may roughly divide the migratory
birds into three elasshsL1irst, those that
breed in the temperate zones; secondly,
those that breed in the Arctic regions: and
lastly, the partial migrants. Taking these
classes in the order ] have enumerated,
those birds which breed in the temperate
zones migrate mostly TO countries on the
equator, and even very far south of II.
In Europe such birds as the martins
swallows, swifts warblers. quail, landt a l.
storks and many others migrate TO Cen
! trail and South Africa, even as far as the
Cape of Good Hope. In Asia the bulk OF
| the migrants take up their Winter quar-
ters in Southern India. Ceylon Southern
China and the Malay archipelago. while
some even Winter in Australia, including
In the New World the birds of the tenn
| perate zone are rather perplexing in their
| migratory habits. Many of those which
| go north to Canada and Alaska in the
| Summer pass the Winter I'm Mexico, PAN
anna, and even Colombia, while Others as
| well as number of migrants from the
| United States, go over 20 the West H.
| dies. One of the most wonderful instances
| of migration is that of the tiny flame
| breasted humming bird (Selasphorus ru-
| fus), which breeds on the west coast Of
America as far north as Alaska and Behr-
| ing Island, and winters in Lower Cali
| fornia and Mexico. Thus with unerring
| instinct, this diminutive bird. scarcely two
| inches long, flies twice year the astound-
ing distance of over 5000 miles The birds
| which belong to the second class-those
| which breed in the Arctic reglons-com-
prise the swans, many of the waders and
| a considerable number of ducks and
| geese. In Europe these birds spend the
| winter in all the countries from England
| south to the Mediterranean and Black
Seas some even going as far south as the
upper reaches of the Nile. In Asia most
| of the waders, such as the snipe wood
cock, sandpipers and plover, as well as the
| ducks and the geese, spend the Winter in
India and South China. In America the
Arctic birds migrate to the southern
United States and Mexico
| The partial migrants, which form the
| third class, are rather more puzzling in
| their movements, for among them we
| find birds whose motives for wandering
| are very diverse. Some are unwilling
slaves-that is, they get mixed up in the
| big flights of true migratory birds. and
are irresistibly hurried along with
them; such are the rocks, starlings and
| robins, which are so frequently seen in
Heligoland in the midst of flock of
| swallows. warblers and other genuine
| migrants. Another lot of these partial
migrants are those which, perhaps,
| most justly deserve this name, namely,
such birds as larks, pinits, titmice,
which, although resident with us all
| the year round, at times greatly di-
! minish in numbers. owing to more than
half their individuals changing their
abode For instance, those which breed
| in Scotland and England wander in the
| winter over to France. hut, unlike the
true migrant, always leave some of
| their number behind.