Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-11-14

night and migration of birds from the
earliest times, there are still many
mysteries connected with it.
Many birds of the weaker and more
defenseless kinds migrate by night
and nobody has ever really seen them
come or go. This applies especially
20 the smaller ground feeders who are
compelled to feed during the daytime.
On some crisp September morning
the brown thrushes and catbirds
have disappeared and gone south,
while the little juncoes and the shy
whitethroats have come from the
northern forests and enliven the woods
and roadside bushes, which our must
cal summer boarders have only just
deserted
Many of these small birds migrate
in large, scattered focks, at a height
OF a thousand feet or more. If one will
seat himself on quiet knoll ON
still autumn or spring night. he can
hear the winged hosts calling and
chirping to each other for hours at a
time as they pass invisibly above
him.
How do the birds find their way? In
general it may be said that each gen
Grafton learns the routes from its an
eestors. Flying at such a great height.
the immigrants clear all distractions
and are guided by such prominent
landmarks as rivers, coast lines. is.
lands and hills. The Mississippi
river, Lake Michigan and our Atlantic
and Pacific coasts are amongst the
greatest bird highways of the world,
and millions of birds use them twice
every year and have used them for
uncounted ages.
Many are the dangers to which the
migrating hosts are exposed. In fogs
and storms they have to fly low and
often are bewildered and lose their
way. In such unfavorable weather.
thousands dash themselves against the
glaring lenses of lighthouses or break
their wings on telegraph and tele-
phone wires. Frequently they get
tired out and alight for rest in the
most unexpected places. l have sew
eral times picked up tired water birds
fast asleep on the streets of the twin
cities and Chicago.
Sometimes a storm drives the land
birds far out to sea, where they drop
exhausted and helpless and fall an
easy prey to the ever hungry dwelers
of the deep. Birds which follow the
shore lines are often driven far inland
and thousands of them slaughtered by
hunters
The instinct of birds about the
weather is by no means infallible
Last spring the migrating warblers
thrushes and kinglets all over the cen
trial northwest were caught by a pro-
tracted cold spell, which caused a
general failure in the insect food and
as result the woods were strewn
with starved birds. AS the area of Sc
we're cold extended from Indiana to
the Dakotas, the number of birds that
persisted from starvation must have
reached into the millions
The midair feeders, such as swal-
lows, swifts and nighthawks, have
many advantages over their humber
relatives of grasslands and woods.
They feed and migrate at the same
time. If the weather is fine. they may
be seen lightly sailing in the blue air
far above the highest spires and city
buildings. But when the weather is
unsettled, they skim low over lakes
and marshes, picking up their food as
they go. When night overtakes them,
the swiits assemble in some large, un-
used chimney. while the swallows
gather in countless numbers in the
rushes or willows of some well-known
marsh.
| Some birds migrate over enormous
distances, while others remain as near
home as possible. The merry bobo-
links Of our northern meadows have
left us late in August and make the
long journey to South America by
way of the rice fields of the Carolinas
and Georgia, where it costs the far
mers thousands of dollars to protect
their fields from the hungry focks.
Some weeks later they leave North
America by way of Florida, and by the
time the first snowstorms blow over
their empty nests in the distant north
the bobolinks have reached their win
ter homes in the far-away valleys
south Of the Amazon
The boblinks that nested in Utah
and Montana journey to South Amer
lea by the same route taken by their
friends from Nova Scotia. 1t seems
as If in the distant past the bobolinks
learned the route by way of the West
Indies and Florida, and they have fol-
lowed IL ever since.
A little humming bird of the Pacific
coast covers, twice a year, the i'm