The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-03-19
DIR. D. w. Dennis, Bird Wiz
ard, of Earlham College,
Rides Horseback to and
From Haunts of Birds.
TIME OF MIGRATION
Professor Says That During
the Course of One Night
More Than $4,000 Birds
Flew Over Richmond.

DR.. David w. Dennis, the birdJwiz-
ard, of Earlham college, who for many
years has led troops of young people
in search of rare birds, is again in the
fields early and late. Because his
step fails him, he rides horseback to
and from the birds haunts In an
article today he tells the truth about
the robin, and describes the stipend
Gus Journey of mite of a bird that
would raise it's young in safety
Appended is the article by DR.. David
w. Dennis:
1t is the time of the year for the
great miracle of bird migration to set
in. The earliest corners are here now.
The blue bird, the robin, the kildeer,
the mourning dove and the yellow
billed sap-sucker have arrived The
tide of migration will gradually rise
until about May l, and by the Goth of
May it will be all over. We all know
something about it; the honk, honk
of the leader of the long V of wild
geese has been heard by all as they
fly over to the north, and those who
are IS years old and over can tell
stories about the millions of wild pig
cons that flew by on their way to the
sunny south in their childhood
Few of us know the full truth about
bird migra ton. During the full moon
nearest the first Of May in 1909. Lo-
rem C. Petry watched the face of the
moon for four hours one night through
| the telescope at Earlham college and
counted SIS birds that passed between
him and the moons disc. At that
rate, $4,000 birds flew over Richmond
that night on their way to their nest
| ing grounds. Fifteen hundred birds
of one kind flew against the statue
! of liberty in one night in storm.
! Where did this army Of birds come
from? Wither are they going? Why
are they going? The first question
can be answered by the ordnithologist
of the southern part of North Amer
! lea and the northern half of South
! America; the second by observers to
the north of us. We are not sure
| that we have the right answer to the
third, but believe the birds migrate
that they may raise their young in a
safe place, where alligators, snakes,
| etc. are not found.
| If the bushes and low trees along
our north and south flowing streams
are closely watched between the mid
! die of April and the middle of May,
many bright colored. small birds will
! black polled warbler. bird smaller
than the English sparrow with solid
black on the top of ithsead and wing
and elsewhere black and white
stroped. This bird came from far
south of the equator. and is on his
way to the mating grounds north OF
the arctic circle. He will spend two
months in his SUMMER home and the
other ten months making his long
ten-thousand-mile round trip journey
He will be busy during his two-months
stay building his home in the grass
or low bushes and raising his young
Many interesting facts may be
learned. The robin nests in our towns
and cities, and winters from Southern
Indiana and Kentucky southwark. In
the north he knows we are his friends
spent one winter in Sanford, Fla.
and not one robin was to be seer
about the town. One evening the MAI
who kept the hotel came in with g
bag of twenty-three robins. which he
had shot for pot pie. The robin il
the south knows he is among enemies
and is the shyest bird met.
Bryant got his lesson from a mi
grating bird:
"He who from zone to zone
Guides through the boundless sky tn,
i certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread
alone
Will lead my steps Alright"