THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14868, 20 December 1911, Page 11

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

The fascinating problem of " The Migration of Birds" is discussed in the Windsor Magazine, with many interesting illustrations of the author's statements. In the course of it he Bays : — " No branch of the study of, ornithology has been more eagerly pursued by naturalists than the migration <. birds.' Perhaps no more puzzling and elusive pursuit has ever been followed by 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 bo greatly surprised at the theories held in the olden days, ridiculous as they may seem to modern ears.

"A century or so ago, for instance, people took it for granted, becau&e the swallows suddenly disappeared one night after congregating in thousands on the reeds and willows by the riverside, that they therefore dived under water and remained stuck lin the mud in a torpid state until the return of spring. _ < , "Such a blunder, however, careful observation has long since rectified, and the winter home ot the swallow is now known to be the sunny shores of the south, instead of the cold river-bed. Its migration, not it 3 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 nowadays is looked upon as a more or less well developed reasoning faculty, not, as formerly, -a - mere blind instinct. There .is method in migration, it has been aptly remarked. Naturally, the little travellers frequently make mistakes. Sometimes, perhaps, in their eagerness to teach their Summer home, they arrive too early, the insect food, on which they expected to bubsist not having yet awakened into life. At other times, mistaking certain landmarks, they find themselves far out of their proper fly-line, thus accounting for the ' rare birds r 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 the darkness overhead, it is difficult to realise that in a few hours these same birds may be within the Arctic Circle, and a little later may bo even crossing the Polo itself. " But all migrants do not take their journeys in this hurried fashion, even in spring, when thoughts .of love usually speed them to their nesting-home. Some, especially 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 gold-crests have been observed to rest for some hours, feeding, sleeping, and preening their feathers. Then, as evening approaches, a tiny call-note sounds out aloit, all is bustle and stir in a moment, and the little band, like a swarm of bees, strikes out across the wild North Sea for the Lincolnshire coast."