THE C0LOG1ST. 



299 



•coast in the east and west, and the great 

 river and its tributaries in the Mississ- 

 ippi valley. But when iustances come 

 to our notice that the minute hummers 

 have been known to return to the same 

 tree after wintering in the far south we 

 cannot do otherwise than to marvel 

 thereat. 



Then we recall to mind the story that 

 is told of a stork that was captured on 

 ■or near its nest in Germany. The cap- 

 tor put a copper band bearing date, 

 town and country on the bird's leg and 

 then the prisoner was liberated. This 

 was a strange thing to do but it was pro- 

 ductive of a wonderful result. The 

 next spring a stork returned to the same 

 German breeding place and the captor 

 •of the previous year caught the newly 

 arrived bird. The captor was much 

 surprised to note that the new corner 

 bore two copper bands on one leg. 

 The first was the ring put on the year 

 before, and it showed that the intelli- 

 gent bird had returned to his old home. 

 The second band told where the stork 

 had been. An inscription on the ring 

 read as follows " India sends greeting 

 to Germany." This evidenced the fact 

 that the bird had been subjected to the 

 indignity of capture in his Indian home, 

 and there burdened with a second band. 

 The first, no doubt, instigated the put- 

 ting on of the second. 



Many wonderful espisodes of bird 

 life, bearing on migration, might be 

 mentioned but space forbids. 



Now as to the primary cause of the 

 impulse which starts the birds to seek 

 a change of climate. No doubt but 

 what there is an occult sense possessed 

 by them that we are unacquainted with, 

 and it must'be very acute as it evidences 

 a very delicate perception of thermal 

 and moisture air currents. This sense 

 is particularly apparent among the sea- 

 birds, as some species are infallable 

 harbingers of an approaching storm. 

 Old sailors often have more faith in 

 them as prognosticators, than in the 

 most modern barometers. 



To advance my theory regarding the 

 aforementioned reason and knowledge 

 as displayed by the migratory birds, I 

 will say that they know that their heat 

 aud light are delivered from the sun; 

 they know that when the solar orb ap- 

 parently sinks below the western hor- 

 izon that the light is soon superceded 

 by darkness and that a lower temper- 

 ature is to prevail; they know that when 

 the sun again appears daylight and 

 warmth returns. When after the sum- 

 mer solstic the great master of our sys- 

 tem seems to recede, the fact is noticed 

 by them, and when the nights get too 

 cold in the autumn the migratory birds 

 move towards the apperantly retrograd- 

 ing orb until a zone of warmth suffici- 

 ent to satiate there bodily needs is 

 reached. Of course, the sun all of the 

 time appears to move from east to west 

 but the birds know that his path across 

 the sky lies to the south, and so they 

 intelligently journey in that direction. 

 A great deal of migrating is done by 

 night wnen the sun is absent and the 

 birds cannot then use him for their 

 guide, but we will assume that they 

 are able to maintain the general direc- 

 tion of the great autumnal migration 

 even if their shining light does divide 

 his time with them and their antipodal 

 congeners - 



In the spring when the sun seems to 

 be moving north, the birds of passage, 

 when the heat becomes too great for 

 their comfort, move away from the 

 solar orb until a clime congenial to 

 them physically is reached, which rep- 

 resents their northern or southern 

 home. 



The time and departure of the various 

 species is probably governed by their 

 constitutions. That is, those that stay 

 the latest in autumn and arrive first in 

 the spring are the most hardy birds. 

 Certain northern birds such as the 

 Pine Grosbeak, Northern Waxwing, 

 Crossbills etc. are only seen in south- 

 ern New England in extremely cold 

 winters. 



