THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 

 eight months in the year, and during the other four 

 months have considerably more dayUght than dark- 

 ness." 



Perils of Migration. — ^The periods of migration are 

 fraught with numerous perils for the travelling hosts. 

 Attracted and blinded by the torches of lighthouses, 

 multitudes of birds are annually killed by striking 

 against lighthouse towers in thick, foggy weather. 

 The keeper of the Cape Hatteras light once showed 

 me a chipped place in the lens which he said had been 

 made by the bill of a great white Gannet which one 

 thick night crashed through the outer protecting 

 glass of the lighthouse lamp. As many as seven 

 hundred birds in one month have killed them- 

 selves by flying against the Bartholdi Statue of 

 Liberty in New York Harbour. As its torch is no 

 longer lighted the death-rate here has been greatly re- 

 duced, although some birds are still killed by flying 

 against the statue. Many were formerly killed by 

 striking the Washington Monument, the record for 

 one night being one hundred and fifty dead birds. 

 [75] 



