Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-09-01

II birds carried life Insurance the
premium on their policies would be
high. Compared with the security or
the insecurity of man, every bird
would be an extra hazardous risk.
Many perils beset the blrd-cats, wild
beasts, snakes, boys, gunners, para
sites, disease, famine, thirst, "acci-
dents by flood and field" windstorms,
hail, sleet and snow storms, forest
fires, brush fires, and bandit birds, such
as owls, hawks, crows, jays and other
feathered pillagers which eat the
eggs of other birds and kill fledglings
and full-grown birds.
Millions Of land birds-the spar
rows, warblers, red starts, indigo
buntings and all the other migrants
lose their lives in storms at sea. Light
houses, especially those that have
fixed white lights, cause the death Of
the spring and fall migrations I'M
countable numbers of birds are killed
by striking tall structures on dark and
foggy nights.
Hit Tall Monument.
Wells w. Cooke, deceased assist
ant biologist Of the government BIZ
illogical survey at Washington, wrote
in 1915 that Sduring migration birds
are peculiarly liable to destruction by
striking high objects. The Washing
ton monument at the national capital
has witnessed the death Of many little
migrants. On single morning in the
spring of 1902 nearly $50 lifeless
bodies were Strewn around its base.
AS long as the torch in the Bartholdi
Statue of Liberty in New York har-
Dor was kept lighted the sacrifice Of
bird life it caused was enormous, even
reaching a maximum of TOO birds a
month"
Every spring lighthouses destroy
many thousands Of birds flying be-
tween their winter homes In the South
and their summer homes in the North.
The death. toll is greater in the fall.
Lighthouses stand every few miles
along the 5000 miles Of Atlantic
coast, butithose especially destructive
Of birds are the light on the Fowey
Rocks and Sombrero Key at the south
end of Florida. That is because of
the character of their lights and their
position. l..
Countless birds pass each year to
fy.op Tnho and fhnSn IiUhfc
the top of high towers, are on much
travelled migration routes" The light
on Fowey Rocks is a fixed white light,
which Is curiously deadly to migrating
birds. A flashing light frightens birds
away, and a red light is avoided by
them, but.a steady white light loom
ing up In the mist and darkness at
tracts many Of the withdrawing
birds. Generally they do not strike
against the windward side Of the
glass of the light, but they fly around
to the leeward side and wear them
selves outiflutter4ng In the bewildering
rays.
Many Die In Storms. '.
Migration is a season full Of peril
for thosetwinged travellers that cross
large bodies Of water Some of the
water birds making long voyages can
rest on the waves IL overtaken by
storms, b1t death is usually the fate
of the lpekless sparrow. or warbler
whose feathers become water soaked.
A bird catastrophe was once seen
from the 'decks Of vessel 80 miles
OF the mouth of the Mississippi river.
Large numbers of migrating birds,
mostly warblers, had accomplished
nearly their whole flight across the
Gulf of Mexico when caught by
"norther," 'with which most of them
were unable to contend, and, falling
into the gulf they drowned by hun
dreds