THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLVI, Issue 17, 26 August 1919, Page 8

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

The fascinating problem .of "The Migration of Birds" is discusied in the "Windsor Magazine," with many interesting illustrations of the author's statements, i In the course of which lie "No branch of the study of ornithology lias been nioro eagerly pursued by naturalists than the migration of birds. Perhaps no more puzzling and elusive pursuit has ever been followed bv man. Some of the mysteries of migration seem about as far from solution, to-day as they did a hundred years ago ; and considering the difficulties that lie in the path, one cannot be greatly surprised at the theories held in the n'di-n days, ridiculous as they may seem to modern ears. "A i-catnn or so ago, for instance, people took it for granted, because tho swallows suddenly disappeared one night after congregating in thousands on the reeds and willows by the riverside, tl.at they therefore dived under water and remained stuck in the mud in a torpid state until the return of spring. "Such blunder, however, careful observation lias long since rectified, and the winter home of the swallow is now known to bo the sunny shores of the south, instead of the cold river-bed. Its migration, not its hibernation, is the cause of its disappearance. In fact, no birds have ever been proved to hibernate. though many other animals do.so. "Moreover, migration now-adays ia looked upon as a more or less well-de-veloped reasoning faculty, not, as formerly, a mere blind instinct. Thero is method in migration, it has been aptly remarked. Naturally the little travel- j lers frequently make mistakes. Somelimes, perhaps in their eagerness to reach their summer home, they arrive too early, the insect food, on which they expected to subsist, not having yet awakened into life. At other timea, mistaking.certain landmarks, they find, thcselvos far out of their proper flyline, thus accounting for the rare birds which now and again turn up in our isles.'' Writing of the varying speeds of migration, the author remarks : "The rate at which some "birds can migrate under favourable conditions is extraordinary, and as one listens to their plaintive cries coming from tho darkness overhead, it is difficult to realise that in a few hours these same birds may be within the Arctic Circle, and a lirtle later may bo even crossing the Pole itself. "But all migrants do not take their journeys in this hurried fashion even in spring, when thoughts of love usually speed tliem to their nesting home. Some specially the smaller kinds, such as warblers and golden-crested wrens, have occasional halting-places, where they rest and recuperate. On the island of Heligoland, for instance, flights of goldcrests have been obserred to rest for some hours, feeding, sleeping and preening their feathers. Then, as evening approaches, a tiny callnote sounds out ahift, all is bustle and stir in a moment, and the little band, like a swarm of bees, strikes out across the cold North Sea for tho Lincolnshire coast."