The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-08-12
AR: Slain
Dy LIGHTHOUSES
Crcountable Numbers Killed by
Hitting Tall Structures.
''..7,E Bz-5ET BY h.u'hiY PEn.T-G

Compared With Security or lnseeuri-
ty of Man Every Eird Wouio BE
an Extra Hazardous aisk-Washing-
ton Monument and Statue Of Liber-
ty Responsible for the Death OF
Thousands OF Little aiisrants-toas
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 risii.
Many perils 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
hres, brush fires, and bandit birds. such
as owls, hawks, crows, Jays and other
~feathered pillagers which eat the
eggs of other birds and kill fedglinss
and full-grown birds.
Millions of land birds-the spar
rows, w%arblers, red starts, indigo
huntings 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 un-
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 ut 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
migrants. On a 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 1t caused was enormous, even
reaching a maximum of 700 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 full.
Lighthouses stand every few miles
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
the character of their lights and their
position.
Countless birds pass each year to
md from Cuba. and these lights, Mt
the top Of high towers, are on much
travelled Emigration 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 night-travellng
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 out fluttering in the ~bewllderlng
rays.
Many Die in Storms.
Migration is a season full of peril
for those winged travellers that cross
large bodies of water. Some Of the
water birds making long voyages can
rest on the waves If overtaken bg
storms, but death is usually the fate
of the luckless sparrow or warbler
whose feathers become water soaked.
A bird catastrophe was, once seen
from the decks Of a vessel 30 miles
off 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 81
'norther," with which most of them
were unable to contend, and, falling
into the gulf, they drowned by hun
1rpdS.