The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-07-18
BIRDS BEAT MAN
Wonderful Records Our Feathered
Friends Hold


We despise the struggling. futtering,
quarrelsome sparrow as a. good for
nothing street arab. vet the sparrow is
In many respects mans superior says
London Answers. It's blood temperature
is considerably higher than that OF
more active, capable OF much greater
eNertion. 1t can do with less sleep can
live where man would starve. Its plum
age is so beautifully adapted TO all re-
quisitions that II acts as warm
b. nket in winter, dust coat in sum
mer and In wet weather. owing TO the
oil glands at the bases Of the feathers,
as a macintosh
The same and more is true Of birds
as class. In some ways they are the
highest Of all vertebrate creatures.
gift OF flight. which not only enables
them TO escape most of the dangers to
which earth-crawling creatures are
subject, but also 10 speed at will over
the whole earth
AS architects birds far surpass all
other wild creatures, \ few animals
and a number OF insects and fish build
dwellings for themselves and their
young but what can compare with the
dainty, bottle-shaped nest of the long
tailed TIT, the swinging home of the
gold-crested wren OF the carefully plas
tered mud dwelling OF the swallow?
The Indian tailor bird goes further
still. 1t does what man cannot dot
sews without needle or hands, Using
it's beak 1t sews together leaves OF
trees with living fibers of other plants
forming cone, which II lines with very
soft material.
Birds are possessed of enormous
muscular power gar exceeding, in somo
cases. that Of any other warm -blooded
creature. There is an instance on
record OF an eagle. Weighing no more
than fourteen pounds, lifting and car
rying off young zig which, weighed
many men could even stagger along
the ground carrying three times their
own weight In their hands?
The kick Of an ostrich is a fearsome
thing. 1t will break mans thigh or
even the leg of horse. The ostrich,
too, is, for a short distance. the swift
est runner of any creature The top
miles an hour. An ostrich. II is esti
mated can run for the first half mile a [
about torty-seven miles an hour
The speed OF birds in the air is d
trouble to consider, a swallow which
had nest In the gable or the railway
station at Antwerp was taken thence
and sent TO Compiegre. I'm France.
leased II was home again within one
hour and eight minutes Its speed was.
therefore, 1881 miles an hour.
More than equally marvellous Is the
way In which migrating birds of all
kinds find their way in sunshine and
darkness through uncounted miles O:
the nlGl. atmosphere, arriving year bY
year with most absolute accuracy at
their distant destinations Young
cucleoos leave En"land after their par
ents and find their way unaided to
Africa. How do they do II?
Birds are weatherwise beyond other
creatures, Swans and other water birds
seem TO have some sixth sense which
tells them when u wet season is COM
Ing. Before such a time they build
their nests higher han usual above the
water line. so that II food comes the
nest and eRGs will not be washed away.
The peacock knows overnight what the
weather Will be. His harsh scream be-
fore he goes to rooSt is certain sign
Of rain before morning
Some migrating birds have the curl
Gus faculty of avoiding places infected
by pestilence. Swallows. for instance
VIII never build where plague cholera
or yellow fever is raging Saint Au-
gustine long ago noticed this. and eX-.
horted his followers to "Shun wicked
ness as swallows shuu pestilent
places
We speak OF dainty persons having
no more appetite than a bird" No
less appropriate phrase could be used.
The bird tribe have. one and all enorm-
,ous appetites. A heron Weighing four
pounds has. when shot disgorged two
trout-one OF two pounds, one of one
and a half pounds