The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-10-26

let even SOs Tie IedIS Oh Some MI
gratory birds also seem incredible.
The other day. sitting on a
neighbors porch. we say a lone
riimmingbird dipping into some
flowers. jerking back and forth
like a bumblebee. appearing and
disappearing from time. TO time
81 his speed made him invisi-
bld He was refueling and
faitening up for his trip TO
Mexico or South America. Hard
as il is to believe. bird experts
have proven that these tiny
and incrediblY-swiff birds can
fly overnight from Florida TO
Mexico.
When | was a child. l watched
humming birds in the flowers of
a coral vine for many years be-
fore the realization came to me
that they were birds and not
some sort of insect. And many
unobservant people see humming-
birds far more often than they
realize, because they confuse
them with bees or insects.
A week ago, fishing at Gravel
inc Bayou. we heard geese honk-
ing in the sky, the first of the sea-
son, and looking up we saw two
of them trailing~over bearing to-
ward the southeast. Even though
there were only two, one was
flying wing position on the 9TH
er just as they do in large floeks.
II is a fact that the Information
of military aircraft was devel-
oped by early aviation tactitians
from observation of birds in
flight. The prime advantage of
the Information is that il allows
the birds to fly close together and
yet keep out of n another's
"prop-wash."
A few minutes after the two
geese had disappeared over the
horizon, a large flight of fifty or
more came trailing over. The
thought occurred to us that the
two might have constituted some
sort of reconnaissance patrol, and
that even though they were out
OF sight to us in the boat, their
honking or perhaps even their
scent might have set up a beam
for the flock that came behind
them by at least ten miles.
The more we think of il now.
the more plausible it seems. The
first geese were honking, but
those which came later were ST.
lent. Undoubtedly the honkinp
Of geese in flight is a sort of com
munications beam and direction
finding device since it erves no
mechanical aid to flight. and
even constitutes a slight deter
rent, and a waste of energy. II
is observed, for instance. that
geese in flight over cities at night
seem to make the most noise.
and it has been suggested that the
lights below confuse them and
require their range-finding appa-
ratus to come into play.
When the geese came over we
happened to be in a skiff with
flyer now discharged, and talk
ing about the similarity Of mi
gratory birds and military flight
formations, he said:
I'm still waiting TO see them
come over some day in three
boxes of six staggered at five
hundred feet. Then I can say
I've seen them do everything"
No biologist. philosopher. an
atomist or other scientist has
yet explained the WORKINGS of
instinct. and indeed this subject
has been q controversial point
between various schools Of
thought for generations. Yet
undoubtedly the instinct exists.
The insects perhaps T even
better examples than the birds.
The life of a butterfly. a bee.
an ant is so brief. and their
brain capacity so limited. that
they could not possibly learn
TO do the things they do if
some compulsion were MOI bred
into the very cells of their bod
les. What they do is far be-
Yond their capacity for thought
Yet the ability TO do il is IS
much q heritsge as their wings.
or bodies.
Explain If who can.