XI 
THE FLIGHT OF THE BIRD 
How do Birds find their Way ?? 
(Told at Foxes Corners School) 
“T was telling Grand’ther about how far away the birds 
go in the winter, and how they fly against the lighthouses 
and get killed,” said Tommy Todd, “and he said I couldn’t 
tell him anything about their going away and coming back, 
cause he’d seen that going on, boy and man, these seventy 
years. Grand’ther knows how the same kind of birds 
come back to the place every spring, ’cause he says there 
were Phoebe Birds had a nest on the end beam of the cow- 
shed over where the last cow stands, — way back when he 
was learning to milk. Then when that old shed blew 
down, and they built a new one like it, back the birds came, 
and they are coming yet; first nest over Black Bess, and 
second nest way out over the box-pen where the little 
calves live. 
“What Grand’ther wants to know is how they find 
the way to go so far, and how they know where to 
stop and find something to eat, and if they get hungry, 
’cause he says nobody seems to know just what they do 
between times, and what people do tell seems like Jack- 
and-the-Beanstalk fairy-stories, and he said maybe you 
had some book that told about it so’s you could explain.” 
1 Condensed and adapted from Some New Facts about the Migration of 
Birds, by Wells W. Cooke, United States Biological Survey. 
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