June, 1 913 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



XI 



BIRD MIGRATION 



ORNITHOLOGISTS tell us, says the 

 Youth's Companion, that birds are 

 not so invariable in their migratory 

 habits as most persons suppose. If, for 

 instance, the season is warm, or there is 

 sufficient food for them in the north, the 

 birds are late in starting south. 



Nevertheless, the month of October is 

 a sort of "starting-point" in the records 

 of the ornithological societies. But it is 

 not infrequently the case that birds that 

 migrate in large numbers on October 31 

 one year, have either not arrived or have 

 passed south earlier on the corresponding 

 date of previous years. 



"The Accidental Visitors' List," kept 

 by the London Zoological Society, is a 

 record of all birds observed in Great 

 Britain and on the British coasts that are 

 not indigeneous to the British Isles, but 

 have flown thither from the Continent. 

 In England, naturalists, ornithologists, 

 lighthouse-keepers, masters of vessels, 

 coast-guardsmen, farmers, and country 

 gentlemen gladly report strange birds 

 which they may observe, and give the 

 date and circumstances of the observa- 

 tion. An examination of "The Acci- 

 dental Visitors' List" reveals many curi- 

 ous happenings. 



Birds native to eastern Siberia and 

 China, North Africa and the arctic 

 regions have thus been observed in Great 

 Britain, but, of course, at rare intervals. 

 There are. however, a good many re- 

 corded instances of American birds cross- 

 ing the Atlantic, and being seen or shot 

 in Great Britain. An extraordinary in- 

 stance was that of a Canada owl that 

 alighted in an exhausted condition on 

 board a vessel off the coast of Cornwall 

 in 1830. The bird was so fatigued with 

 its long flight across the Atlantic that it 

 offered not the slightest resistance when 

 handled by the sailors. A Carolina 

 cuckoo was shot in Wales in February, 

 1883, by Lord Cawdor. In 1831 an 

 American wood-duck was killed at 

 Dorking, England. In 1872 three speci- 

 mens of Cassin's snow-geese, a native of 

 Labrador, were seen on the west coast of 

 Ireland. The American societies have 

 also a record of five individuals of this 

 species shot in Chesapeake Bay in 1871. 

 The London Zoological Society also 

 maintains an accidental visitors' list of 

 fishes, as well as of birds, and the same 

 thing is done at the Fish Commission 

 laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachus- 

 etts. 



These curious wanderers into another 

 continent are doubtless the young of 

 some migratory flock. Such a flock is 

 led by an old and experienced bird, 

 which knows the route north and south. 

 Occasional birds which have never before 

 been over the aerial road may get sep- 

 arated from the flock. They become be- 

 wildered, and fly about, quite at a loss 

 until they reach land. 



Now and then birds that are not 

 strictly migratory gather in enormous 

 flocks, and sweep over several hundred 

 miles of country. The cause that im- 

 pels them to such action is still a mys- 

 tery. Many years ago Turkey and Bul- 

 garia were invaded by enormous flocks 

 of the rose-colored pastor. These birds 

 I re ed destructive to vineyards and 

 growing crops, and the peasants had to 

 turn out in force and kill them by the 

 hundreds. A flock of these birds would 

 strip a tree of fruit in less time than it 

 takes to tell of it, and there were pub- 

 lic rejoicings in places after the vast 

 flocks had passed. 



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