Cleaving the clouds with their moon-edged pinions,
High over city and vineyard and mart;
April to pilot them; May speeding after;
And each bird's compass his small red heart.--_Edwin Arnold._
River valleys, coast lines, and mountain chains are the ways followed
by the migrating birds; and frequent observations have determined the
fact that birds travel at great heights, many as much as a mile from
the earth. This may be one of the reasons why the tiny creatures have
such keen sight; for from this distance they can obtain a far-reaching
view of the surrounding country and distinguish landmarks readily.
If the weather is stormy or foggy, then the birds are obliged to fly
much lower; and, too, it is then that the lights along the coast
attract them and such countless numbers perish by being beaten against
the lighthouses, many more birds being killed in the fall season of
migration than in the spring, when the weather is less stormy.
They fly in vast numbers, and often on still nights they can be heard
calling to each other. A good idea of their number can be obtained
by the use of a telescope, which, if focused on the moon, will often
show the birds on a brilliant background so that they can readily be
discerned. The motion of their wings can easily be seen in this way,
and the immense numbers of them better realized.
A good way to form an idea of the distance covered each year by the
birds as they migrate is to take a single bird and note its journey.
The bobolink makes his winter start in August, rests awhile in the
marshlands and then visits the rice belt of the Southern states, doing
damage directly and indirectly each year to an amount covering several
millions of dollars. Then he flies over Cuba, and there his name is
_chambergo_. Next he lingers along the coast of Yucatan, then goes on
south through Central America and the island of Jamaica, in which place
they call him "butter-bird," on account of his great plumpness, the
result of the rice-feeding, no doubt; and from this place he makes one
continuous long journey for over four hundred miles to Brazil, where he
spends the winter. Here he stays until early spring, and then, if no
accident has come to him, he will again brighten our months of blossoms
by his chipper presence and his delightful song.
One of the most curious things observed in the fall migration of birds
is in this same bobolink. By some manner of means many of these birds
have gone west, some as far as Utah, to spend their summers, and when
the winter is coming they, too, take their flight south, but not by
the direct way through Mexico, and then to Central America, as would
seem most natural, but following their hereditary instincts they come
back to the Atlantic coast and journey down it, along the whole way to
Florida, then across to Cuba, and on with those from New Jersey and
New England until the winter resting-place is reached. This bird gives
a most conclusive and interesting illustration of the permanency of
bird routes and the "hereditary habit" of the winged flocks.--_Bangor
Commercial._
[Illustration: MINERALS.
HORNBLENDT. ROSE QUARTZ. AMETHYST.
PINK TOURMALINE
RUBELLITE.
CROCIDOLITE. AGATE. SERPENTINE.
MALACHITE. SULPHUR.
CHICAGO:
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER.]