Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-17
MIGRATION OF BIRDS
QUESTIONS THAT STILL ACETATE
THE SCIENTIFIC MIND.
Suggestion That Birds Have a Sixth
Sense AN Intuition Of Direc-
ton Now Raised.

Written for The Star.
What becomes of our summer birds,s
Where do they spend the winter" by
what routes do they travel?" How do
they find their way?"
These are questions asked by Wells w.
Cooke in a recent government report con-
| corning the migration OF birds. And for
j hundreds of years these same questions
have been asked and answered the
| answers have changed from time to time,
| as the answers to many other scientific
questions have changed. For many years
1t was taught that the moon was .
cold es.G burnt-out clnder. without atmos-
phere or life of any kind, and IL is but very
| latey that Prof. Pickering has given
reason to believe that our satellite is proba-
bly, very much alive, with an atmosphere
| and vegetation somewhat similar to our
own. 1t was but yesterday that we all
| were taught that the earth In its present
| form had evolved from heated gaseous
| mass that had gradually cooled and solidi-
| ned. that was still cooling and would within
| calculable time become too cold to sus-
| tain life. Recent Investigations tend to
| prove that 1t has probably evolved from
a cold mass and has become warm during
| the process of condensation. and that so
| far from its being on the decline, II is COM
| paratively young and In the early days Of
| Its career. In the same way the theories
| concerning bird migration have changed az
| men have become broader in their views
| and as exact information has accumulated.
There was time when it was believed that
| birds migrated to the moon every autumn
| and returned thence in the spring, and a
| later fancy concerning migration was that
| cranes. while flying across the Mediterra-
mean, carried small birds across on their
| backs. Until very recently there were
| many Englsh-speaking people who believed
| that swallows spent the winter at the bot
| toms of ponds, alternating in the mud, and
| there has been no end of so-called proof
| advanced in support of this belief Even
| today, when bird migration is somewhat
| better understood, our ideas on the subject
| are undergoing continual modification, as
newly discovered facts result in the ex.
| plosion of old theories or the establish.
ment of new ones.
| No Answer as Yet.
For about twenty-three years now the
| biological survey at Washington has been
| collecting data concerning the migration OF
| birds, and during this time it's own field
| naturalists have visited practically all re-
gions Of the North American continent,
| from Guatemala to the arctic circle In adj
| dition to the immense amount of informa-
| ton received from these men, reports are
| sent In twice year by hundreds OF or
| nithologists scattered throughout the coun-
| try. AS result a good deal has been
| learned concerning the extent of the jour-
neys taken by certain BIRDS and the routes
| IOuOWeu IN taxing them, Dut II Is frankly
admitted that no conclusive answer has
| yet been given to the question: why do
| birds migrate?" The once rather generally
accepted theory that spring migration was
| caused by love of home, and that the fall
| migration was made by the failure of the
food supply, no longer completely satisfies
| the serious student. why" he asks, 'if
| birds have strong love for home as to
| brave the greatest perils In order to reach
| it-why then, do so many of them leave IL
practically the moment they have reared
flai. fo,..
| is made because of lack of food, why does
1t begin when food is most abundant" BY
| recently collected careful data it is shown
| that the southwark migration probably be-
| birds migrate?" The once rather generally
| gins by the list of July, and certainly by
the 10th of that month, insectivorous birds
leaving when insects are most abundant,
| and the grain-eaters before the height of
| the harvest. 1t is evident that while nil
grafton may originally have been the result
of periodic changes in temperature and food
| supply, today these motives are by no
| means the only ones, and 1t must be con-
fessed that the others are either unknown
or but imperfectly understood.
Sense of Direction.
| Have birds a sixth sense-that of direc-
| ton? If not, how can they, on occasion,
| fly for scores of miles across the ocean, enc
veloped In dense fog through which a
man cannot see hundred yards? Mr..
| Cooke, in his report, states that Sin Alaska
| q Few years ago, members OF the biological
! survey on the Hartman expedition went by
steamer from the Island of Unalaska to
! Bogoslof Island, distance of about sixty
| miles. dense fog had shut out every OBJ
! ject beyond a hundred yards. When the
! steamer was half way across, focks of
! INJURIES, returning to Bogoslof after long
! quests for food, began to break through the
! fog wall astern, fly parallel with the YES
| sci, and disappear in the msts ahead By
| chart and compass the ship was heading
| straight for the island; but its course was
no more exact than that taken by the
| birds" On many cloudy night focks of
birds leave the coast of Cuba for the I'M
| seen Florida shores, which they reach in
| safety unless a storm arises to bewilder
| them and blow them out of their course
| Still more wonderful is the crossing of the
| Gulf of Mexico, feat accomplished sue
| cessfully twice every year by myriads of
warblers scarce bigger than ones thumb.
| 1t is not possible for them to even one
| third of the way across. and they have no
compass, unless 1T be one they carry be-
| meath their tiny feathered caps, and the
! character of which can only be guessed at
| Even the very interesting belief held by
| SO many, that during their migrations birds
| follow recognized highways, such as coast
lines, mountain ranges and the courses OF
| large rivers, seems doomed to considerable
| modification. There is no doubt, of course,
that such routes are followed to a consider
able extent. but in many instances 1t is GER
| tain that the birds summering In a given
| locality depart in one direction, but in
| all directions, reaching their winter homes
| Dy entirely QlHerent routes. Moreover,
birds of the same species often follow one
route on their journey north, and quite a
different one the return trip. The fact
| that birds seldom, if ever, migrate above
the clouds, dropping nearer the earth
soon as clouds arise, would seem to indicate
| that they depended, at least to a large ex-
tent, upon their eyesight, which is undoubt-
eddy very keen in most cases. Even when
migrating at night their distance from the
| earth is largely determined by the clearness
or haZiness of the atmosphere. But that
! there is some other sense which guides these
| feathered voyagers at times when no eye-
| sight, however keen, could help them to
| steer their course Alright Is interesting
theory, which further observation and ex-
pertinent may prove.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.
Jeffersonian Simplicity.