Evening star., 1936-09-27

ment. The large birds fly high IN the
sky in migrations, while the small
birds usually hy from an altitude Of
400 to 500 feet. and thus come within
the fatal Washington Monument
height.
RIRDs are attracted by any we'll
lighted building and stray bodies Of
them have been found at the base of
such buildings. The brilliantly lighted
dome Of the Capitol is irresistible to
many, but the dome Is so large that
the birds can clear the pile through
the currents that swirl around 1t,
flying out Of the current through
some instinct they possess. Scien-
lists tell Of a duck so caught. By
spiral flight It managed to reach
the top Of the Statue Of Freedom and
rested there for an hour, then flying
safely of. Lighthouses are terrible
attraction to all kinds Of birds.
The birds fly at night, for they
feed and rest in the day hours.
Storms are confusing to them, esps-
cially thunderstorms, and they fly
around them without q notion OF
what they are doing. Sometimes
they are hurled to the ground by the
strong winds and rain and are killed.
| and sometimes they drop dead from
sheer exhaustion in battling storm.
yIyk,nla Aolle fnttnd
cred with birds killed in this way
If caught at night in storm or
needing rest they will alight on the
ground. There have been nights when
the area around the Monument has
been literally covered with small
birds resting or evading a storm.
Perhaps the Monument helped to
attract them as a place Of refuge.
1t is truly often irresistible to those
not blinded. At the Monument one
can see them again and again, re-
turning to the shaft after they ap-
pear to have escaped, though fire.
quently drawn back by the force of
the swirling current Of air. One
woman scientist picked up q live
warbler which seemed to have con-
siderable vitality left in it. She took
it distance of 100 feet from the
Monument and then permitted it to
fly. To her surprise. for she had
tagged it, she found the bird again
at the Monument. Then she took
it to a distance of several hundred
feet, but the bird again found the
Monument. Next time it was lib
Grated in the day time, when the
shaft has no attraction for birds.
THESE song birds have two broods
year. The birds born in the
Spring fly with their elders to the
southern hemisphere when irresisti-
BILE instinct moves them to fly or
food gets scarce. Many of the young
die in their Journeys for lack Of
strength to carry on their flight. The
birds live from to 10 years, and so
will have made twice that number
of migrations in their lifetime. In
so far as the Washington area is con-
cerned, more of the song birds men,
toned fly North. They follow the
course of the rivers; the Potomac
and the Atlantic coast line are very
conspicuous to them at night. They
are fond of using moonlight in their
migrations for obvious reasons. Few
are the birds gathered up here IN
the Spring of the year. 1t is said
that some fly North by way OF the
Pacific coastline. Before the Monu-
ment was lighted some birds we're
killed there in their swift flight. and
it used to be said that one could coll
lect enough birds to make bird
pie If one went to the Monument
early In the morning.
There is no way Of helping the
birds except by razing the Monument,
and. of course, that is unthinka bic
To be sure, the flood lighting might
be eliminated in the migratory sea-
son, but the Monument is lighted
more as protection for aviators
than to make beautiful picture at
night. There are several large air.
ports in the neighborhood. The
angry looking red lights at the top
are not enough In the way of warn
ing, although they seem to do after
midnight, but there is not much
flying after that hour. The food
lighting comes not only from the
bottom of the shaft, but also through
searchlights from neighboring Gov
ernment buildings,
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