The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-03
COME BACK TO NORTHERN HOMES.
Birds are Now on their Way to the SuI
 mer Nesting Places

Birds are Now on their Way to the Sum-
 mer Nesting Places.
 Chicago Chronicle.
 The season has now arrived when the robins nest again. and the little feathered beauties generally come back to their North ern homes from the warmer resorts in the Sunny South where they have spent the winter months. It is marvellous how soon they know when 1t is safe to begin their migration. with what swiftness they make the journey and how faithfully they return to the scene with which last season made them familiar. Under normal conditions the birds of the Northern woods do not leave their nests or perches at night. and they show marked fear of the dark. In the great spring migration they are believed by the best scientific authorities to travel main ly between sunset and sunrise.
 This anual flight is one of the marveIs of nature. Careful observations indicate that most of the birds passing in rnyriads from the tropics to their breeding places in the North temperate gone rise to a great altitude, utterly out of keeping with their habits at all other times. and then rush to- ward their summer home at a speed worthy or the carrier pigeons or frigate birds. Many species which never make more than short flights. close to the earth, Curing fifty weeks of the year. and then only by day, drive forward through the blackest nights at ex- pres train speed or more, rushing straight toward their designation with an instinctive accuracy implying powers of which man has no conception.
 In this great spring migration. which seems to be far more swift and impetuous than the southward movement of the same birds in the late summer or autumn, the or dinary songs and calls of the wonderful travellers are seldom heard Naturalists very familiar with bird notes are usually unable to identify the cries of the hurrying voyagers of the air passing far overhead in fVar aF0 AA- some students of this phase of bird life that there must be general language of the migrating period, something like a system of vocal signs understood by all birds.
 But speculation about the marvels of noe turnal migration is not likely to solve such mysteries while science remains baffled by powers which birds manifest by day under close observation. No one can tell how car Tier pigeons choose the trackless way they take to their homes when released so far from familiar surroundings that if they rose a mile from earth instead of 200 feet more or less and had vision of truly telescopic range they would still be prevented by the curve of the surface of the globe from see- ing any building. tree or hill which had ev- CT come within their sight. It is beyond human power to imagine sense such as that which guides these birds.
 And how can cormorant which easily floats with large part of Its body out of water. neither swimming nor moving a mus cle, immerse itself at will and lie just as motionless. completely submerged except its head, when watching for prey approach ing on the surface of a pond or stream? The bird is much lighter than the volume of water which It's body dIsplaees. Yet 1t can remain under the water as long as it pleases without swimming downward or showing any effort whatever, as may be seen when a tank with glass sides is used for the study of its habits
 The prolonged flight of buzzards. vultures and certain hawks without Tapping their w,ngs may be explainable in the main as tie nice balancing of kite-like surfaces against the wind. but that theory does not cover all these birds do. What moves them in any desired direction when there is no wind? How do they circle. rise or descend or glide swiftly forward in a straight line when the air Is still? And by what means do they make steady progress against half a gale without Tapping their wings? All that has been done and all the knowledge gained leaves us unsolved riddles some of the marvels of bird life. Much that is un- derstood is wonderful but what is beyond human comprehension is far more astonlsh- ing