AND GAR DENE R'S 



VOL. AVI. 



JO U R N A L. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 6, IS37. 



ss'^a.s'wsi^ai aia;s'5P®3s.^, 



NO. 22. 



(From the Genesee Fanner.) 



MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



Passing u few weeks since alon- ti.e margin of 

 one of the smallest of that beautiful chain of lakes 

 that form so remarkable a feature of the lake slope 

 5f Western New York, and admiring the splendid 

 •ainlx.w colors of the autumn woods, reflected 

 Vom its tranquil surface, we were greeted by the 

 ^ell known cry of the Loon, Cohjmbus glacialis 

 levcral of which were floating within sight, their 

 ivhue breasts contrasting finely with the dark inir- 

 ■or-like color of the water, and the rich hues of 

 he reflected woodlands. They had .-ailed to rest 

 hemselves for a few days, on tlieir annual migra- 

 lon (rem the lakes of the far north, to a more fa- 

 'ored clime, and when overtaken by the chill 

 ilasts ihey had left behind, were ready at a nio- 

 nent's notice to resume their flight. " We shall 

 laverain," said a respectable old gentleman whom 

 ve met a few minutes afierwar.ls, "the loons are 

 30 musical for fair weather;" and his prediction 

 vas verified in a few hours. 



Nuttall says : " Far out to sea in winter, and in 

 le great western lakes, partictdarly Huron and 

 lichigan, in summer, I have often heard, on a 

 aim fine morning, the sad ami wolfish call of the 

 Jlilary loon, which like a dismal echo seems 

 lowly to invade the ear, and rising as it proceeds 

 les away in the air. This boding sound to mar- 

 lers, supposed to he indicative of a storm, may 

 2 heard sometimes for two or three miles, when 

 le bird Itself is invisible, or re<luced almost to a 

 )eck. The Indians, nearly as superstitious as 

 ulors, dishke to bear the cry of the loon, consid- 

 ■nig the bird from its shy and ex'raordinary hah- 

 ?, as a kind of supernatural being. By the Nor- 

 egians its long drawn howl, is, with more ap- 



;arance of reason, supposed to portend rain." 



he loon has one peculiarity we have witnessed 

 no other bird, that of swimming, or flying un- 

 !r water, as it were, with the rapidity of an ar- 

 w, a feat we have often witnessed, when the 

 le days of the Indian summer seemed to invite 

 I the birds that had lingered on their passage, to 

 orts and pastimes. 



The migration of birds is one of those extraor- 

 nary provisions of nature, depending for its ac- 

 mplishment, on what we, for want of a better 

 me, are accustomed to call instinct ; but which 

 many cases, seems more like one direct and 

 lerring emanation from the Deity ,than the boast- 

 reason of man. "When certain species of 

 rrts," says the Rev. Mr Bachman, "at their first 

 ison of breeding, being without experience 

 lid all their nests alike, both in form and mate- 

 Is, this may be called tlie result of instinct. On 

 5 other hand, when man guards against danger, 

 uiakes provision for the wants of life, or seeks 

 lef from diseasee, by the application 'of medi- 

 le, he acts from reason, because he is instruc- 



hy the experience. of the past. When birds 



at certain seasons of the year, change the climate, 

 in anticipation of heat or cold, they act from in- 

 stinct, because, to many of them, "it is their first 

 migration; and as they often migrate singly and 

 not in flocks, in'such cases no experience can aid 

 them. On the other hand when man makes pro- 

 vision for the changes of season and climate, he 

 acts from reason, and is instructeil from his own 

 experience or the experience of others."' 



A very large proportion of birds niiiirate, food 

 or climate being usually the exciting c~aiises, and 

 this is particularly true of such as hve or breed 

 m._riorthern latitudes. There are very few that 

 are able to resist the cold and snows of our lati- 

 tude, though birds have blood of a high tempera- 

 ture compared with man. Those that remain 

 with us, are mostly carniverous, living on such 

 animals as chance or the hunter may tlirow in 

 their way ; such as Owls, Hawks, Ravens, the 

 Canada Jay, and the Crow. Some remain that 

 live on the buds of trees, as the Par-ridge or the 

 Grouse, the Crossbills, and the Grosbeaksj and a 

 few of the small birds gain a precarious subsis- 

 tence from the seeds scattered in barnyards, and 

 from weeds rising through the snow. Two or 

 three species of sparrow, familiarly denominated 

 snowbirds, are of this cla.ss. But all the flycatchw 

 crs, and warblers, those beautiful tenants of our 

 groves and orchards, that feed on worms anil in- 

 sects ; all the difl^erent families of the swallow, the 

 night hawks, and whippoorwill, the taiinger, and 

 the oriole, early obey the wonderful instinct of 

 nature, and seek in more favored cHmes, the food 

 denied them in this. They are followe<l by the 

 divers, the snipes, wild goose, ducks, the .«an.l 

 birds, in short, all that frequent our water.-?, and 

 subsist on food from our fresh water ponds and 

 rivers. 



The habits of migratory birds were but iuijier- 

 feclly understoo.-!, until it was found that many 

 kinds travelled mostly by night 5 and experiments 

 made on the rapidity with wiiich birds fly, and 

 the time they are able to sustain themselves on 

 the wing, have dispelled many of the errors which 

 were formerly entertained on this subject. 'J he 

 wild pigeon of our forests, flies at the rate of a 

 mile in a minute and a half, or forty "miles in an 

 hour, and his flight is continued by night as well 

 as by day. This would enable him to pass from 

 Georgia to our latitude in a few hours, and at a 

 single flight; and hence the fact that geese, ducks, 

 and pigeons have been taken in the Northern 

 States with undigested rice in their crops, vvhicli 

 must have been g-dthered in the rice fields of the 

 south. The swallow is able to fly twelve or fif- 

 teen hundred miles in twenty-four hours, ami is 

 thus enabled to reach his winter residence; in Cu- 

 ba or South America with ease. To avoid in- 

 convenience during their night flights, birds fly 

 much higher by night than by day ; and almost 

 every one has heard the hoarse notes of the night 

 heron, or the harsh cartwheel crake of the snipe, 

 when high in the air, they were on their night 

 migration. The great whooping Crane can °be 



<.ccasionally heard through the day, as he passes 

 without pausing over mountain and river, but at 

 such a height as to be wholly invisible. We wit- 

 nessed a curious illustraiion of the height at which 

 the Canada goose sometimes flies, a year or two 

 since. The night had been cold with squalls.— 

 The morning was fair with an occasional fleecy 

 cloud at great height. About 9 o'clock, the cry 

 of wild geese was distinctly heard, but it was a 

 long time before they could he seen, as against 

 the blue sky they were invisible; at length a 

 glimpse of them was caught against a wliite cloud 

 like a row of small specks, and after they had 

 passed through it, they were again seen with a 

 glas.s. They had evidently lost their course dur- 

 ing the night, ami were seemingly un.-.Me to re- 

 gain it, as they continued wheeling round thiongh 

 and over the clouds, for nearly a quarter of an 

 hour. 



One of the most astonishing as well as pleasing 

 facts connected with the migration of birds, is the 

 regularity with which they revisit iheir former 

 breeding places, afteran absence of several months 

 and a flight of thousands of miles. Birds marked 

 so as to be known, have been observed to return 

 to the same nest for many successive years, as the 

 martin, swallow, bluebinl, and wren. A phebe 

 bird lias been known to occupy the same arch of 

 a bridge, or the same cavern by the river, for 

 years ; and it is very rarely indeed that the rights 

 of the migratory birds are intrutied upon, or they 

 are obliged to exjiel usurpers from their former 

 habitations. That welcome bird, the clifl^ swal- 

 low, so lately domesticated in the United States, 

 the common barn swallow, and the chiumey swal- 

 low, are found to return to their cluster of mud 

 built nests, the barn, or ths chimney they occu- 

 pied the year before, with a* much regularity, and 

 certainly almost, as the seasons. The little" song 

 sparrow opens its song on the same hedge, and 



builds in the same thicket of grass and leaves ; 



and the meadow lark, an.l bobolink, wander as 

 little as possible from their former breeding pla- 

 ces. We greet them on their return as old friends, 

 and listen to songs that awake the remembrance 

 of hy.gone years, and think .is we hear their war- 

 bling—" what would this world be, without songs 

 and flowers." 



Closer and more extended observation has ex- 

 ploded the notion that some kinds of birds hyber- 

 nate, or spend the winter without migrating, in a 

 torpid state. This was supposed to be the case 

 with the Rail or Suree of Virginia, and the barn 

 and chimney swallows. The rail appears early 

 in August in great numbers on the reedy shores 

 of the southern Atlantic bays and rivers, and re- ' 

 mains until October, when it disappears sudden- 

 ly and completely, not an individual remaining, 

 where the day before they might be counted by 

 thousands, and it was supposed they took refuge 

 in the mud of the rivers, it is now ascertained 

 they alwjivs migrate by night, which accounts for 

 the suddenness of their appearance and disap- 

 pearance. In our forests we sometimes find hollow 



