Why Birds Come and Go 



should be lost ; for sound as well as sight aids their 

 flight. The twitterings and pipings of the birds that 

 pass in the night float earthward to our listening 

 ears from the dark vault overhead, where they move 

 unseen by friend or foe. 



In autumn, great numbers of migrants dash to 

 their death against the lighthouses along our coasts, 

 partly because many are young, inexperienced, way- 

 ward travelers ; partly because fog now often ob- 

 scures their course, and chiefly, because they are 

 irresistibly attracted toward the bright, cheerful bea- 

 cons, much as moths are drawn to the flame. Young 

 birds have learned to fly swiftly in a straight line be- 

 fore they can steer their bodies well. Once launched 

 on a long flight, it is easier to keep going than to stop 

 short. Immature cedar-waxwings, for example, do 

 not lag behind their swift parents when they fly in a 

 straight course above the tree -tops; but I have 

 picked up in September the dead bodies of more 

 young waxwings than I care to recall, simply be- 

 cause, in flying low between one choke-cherry tree 

 on the lawn and another on the road, they couldn't 

 turn out suddenly enough to escape the corner of 

 the house that stood in a direct line between the 

 trees, and so they broke their poor little necks by 

 dashing at top speed against the piazza posts. 



HAVE BIRDS A SIXTH SENSE? 



Opposing theories to account for the migratory 

 instinct are advanced by scientists. By some it is 

 contended that peculiar acuteness of the five senses, 

 inherent in all animals, would account for the birds' 



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