Mountain advocate. (Barbourville, Ky.) 1904-1935, 1915-05-07
BEATS RECORD OK
best AEROPlANE
eolJe plover Files 24oo Miles, Using
crly Two Ounces Of Fuel In II
sh1se Of Eody Fat.
'sss%.a ps&
CHIMNEY sWlFTs ARE puzzLk
,SsSf5M'
Man Has Never Been Able 10 Learn
Where They Hide During
Winter Months. :

Man Has Never Been Able to lsarn
Where They Hide During
Winter Months g
Washington, d. C.--There 1, n aerial
machine far more economical OF
energy than the best aeroplsne In
vented, and that is the bird known as
the golden plover. This bird, accord.
ing to a bulletin of the United States
Department of Agriculture entitled
BIRD Migration" can fly 2,400 miles
without q stop, making the trip In not
quite IS hours, and using only two
ounces Of fuel in the shape OF body
fat. A thousand pound aeroplane, II
as economical Of fuel, would consume
in 20.mile flight not the gallon OF
gasoline required by the best ma.
chimes, but only a ,single pint. The
fact that the screw propeller Of the
ueropianc has no lost motion, while
tho to-and.fro motion Of the birds
wings appears TO be an uneconomical
way to apply power, makes the fact
regarding fuel seem even more
strange
Even the little ,humming bird can do
better than the aeroplane, for in tts
migration across the Gulf Of Mexico II
flies more than 500 miles in q single
night. Nearly all birds, in fact, show
in their soaring and sailing that they
are proficient In the use Of several
factors in the art Of flying that have
not yet been mastered either In prin.
cipal or practice By the most skillful
of modern aviators. A vulture or .
crane. after a few preliminary wing
beats, sets it's wings and mounu In
wide sweeping circles to great
height, overcoming gravity with no
cxertion apparent to human vision.
even when assisted by the most pow.
erful telescopes.
The Carolina rail, or sora, has small
short wings. apparently i'll adapted to
protracted flight, and ordinarily when
forced to fly does 30 reluctantly and
alights as soon as possible. II fies
with such awkwardness and apparent
ly becomes SO quickly exhausted that
at least one writer has been led TO
infer that most Of its migration must
be made on foot; the facts are, how.
ever. that the Carolina rail has one OF
the longest migration routes Of the
whole rail family and easily crosses
the wide reaches Of the Caribbean
Sea.
The popular belief that birds under
ordinary circumstances find ocean
fight wearisome, and that after labor.
Tag with tired wings across the seem.
il2ly cadless waste they sink exhaust
ed On reaching land, is disproved BY
facts, according to the new pamphlet.
|; .ecms rather that the powers OF To-
comction with which nature has en-
dowed many birds are so wonderful
that under normal conditions they can
easily cross the Gulf of Mexico at Its
widest point and even pass without
pSuGc ever the low, swampy coastal
plain to the higher territory beyond.
50 litue averse are birds to an ocean
fight that many fly from Eastern Ter
as to the Gulf Coast Of Southern Mex
leo, though this 400 miles Of water
Journey hardly shortens the distance
cf travel by an hours flight. Thus
birds avoid the hot, treeless plaius
aud scant provender Of Southern
Texas by a direct flight from the
moist, insect-teeming forests Of North.
crn Texas to a similar country w
Southern Mexico.
Everybody knows that birds when
they migrate In the fall generally go
south" but knowledge is seldom more
specific. The departments new buile-
lin hrinrs ont the fact that while some
birds go TO Florida or the West Indies
{. Mexico, others, such as the bobolink
aaa rice bird, 90 as far south as Para.
iuay and the southern part OF Brazil.
Much has been learned about bird
nCration. but much yet remains TO be
learned. and the following is one OF
taa unsolved problems. The chimney
sa;rt is one OF the most abundant and
best known birds CT Eastern United
states With troops Of fedgelings.
catching their winged prey as they 60
and lodging by night in tall chimneys.
tlc Locks drift slowly south. joining
with other bands, until on the north
crn coast of the Gulf OF Mexico they
become an innumerable host Then
they disappear. Did they drop into
the water or hibernate in the mud. as
YVES believed OF old, their CELEBRATION
could not be more complete. In the
last week in March joyful twittssing
far overhead announces their return
10 the Gulf coast Their hiding place
Curing the intervening I'VE months 10
s.ill the swift's secret.