The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-07-26
UncountabIe Numbers Killed by
Hitting Tall Structures.
ARE BESET BY MANY PERILS
Compared With Security or insecure
ty of Man Every Bird Would Be
an Extra Hazardous Risk-Washino-
ton N nument and Statue of Liber-
ty Responsible for the Death of
Thousands of Little Migrants-Loss
Greater in Fall.

If birds carried life insurance the
high Compared with the security or
the insecurity of man, every bird
would be an extra hazardous risk.
Many periIs beset the bird-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 fedglings
and full-grown birds.
Millions Of land birdsAthe 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
great numbers of birds, and during
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 during 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 !
On CT U1 ino in, q
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 700 birds
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 |
stand every few miles I
along the 5000 miles of Atlantic |
coast, but those especially destructive
If birds are the light on the Fowey
Rocks and Sombrero Key at the south
md of Florida. That is because of
he character of their lights and their
position.
Countless birds pass each year to
md from Cuba, and these lights, at
he top of high towers, are on much
rayeled emigration routes" The light
N Fowey Rocks is fixed white light,
+ |
irds A flashing light frightens birds
way, and a red light is avoided by
hem, but steady white light loom
ne llp in the mist and darkness at
racts many Of the night-travelin@
irds Generally they do not strike
gainst the windward side of the
lass of the light, but they fly around
0 the leeward side and wear them
elves out flutterng in the bewildering
avs.
Many Die in Storms.
Migration is a season full of peril
or those winged travellers that cross
arge bodies of water. Some Of the
rater birds making Ions VOYAGES can
est on the waves if oyertaken by |
forms. but death is usually the fate
f the luckless sparrow or warbler
hose feathers become water soaked.
bird catastrophe was once seen
rom the decks of vessel so miles
IF the mouth of the Mississippi river.
arge numbers of migrating birds.
lostly warbers. had accomplished
early their whole fight across the
ulf of Mexico when caught by a
norther," with which most of them
LIZ Il.