November, 1911 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
3L3 
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When birds are migrating 
over land they fly a short 
distance—an hour or so at 
a time—and then stop and 
rest and feed for a day or 
several days before they 
undertake the next stage of 
their journey. But when 
they come to a stretch of 
water, as for instance when 
birds in fall migration 
reach the northern coast of 
the Gulf of Mexico, they 
make the entire trip across 
the Gulf from Louisiana to 
Yucatan at a single flight in 
a single night between 
darkness and daylight. 
Moreover, they do not seem 
to attempt to shorten the 
flight as could easily be 
done by passing to the west 
through Texas or to the 
east by way of Florida, but thousands of them cross the Gulf at 
its widest point. Strangest of all, they do not seem to be ex¬ 
hausted by these long flights, but often fly a hundred miles over 
the land on the other side before they alight. Indeed, it is cer¬ 
tain that their energies are not severely taxed by these flights or 
they would not undertake them, since, as just remarked, there 
is no necessity of their making these long flights if they were not 
preferred. These long flights are made by many of the smaller 
birds and even by the humming bird, the smallest of all, which 
spring and fall makes the flight of more than 500 miles between 
the coast of northwestern Florida and tjie Mexican coast. 
These distances seem great, but they are small compared with 
the distances flown by some of the water birds to whom a thou¬ 
sand-mile trip is an easy journey. The longest single flight of 
any bird in the world is made by the golden 
plover from Nova Scotia directly south 
across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of 
northeastern South America. In fair 
weather this whole stretch of about 2,500 
miles is made without a stop and probably 
requires nearly if not the whole of twice 
twenty-four hours for the trip. Here is an 
aerial machine that is far more economical 
of fuel than the best aeroplane yet invented. 
The to and fro motion of the bird’s wing 
would seem to be an uneconomical way of 
applying power, since all the force required 
to bring the wing forward for the com¬ 
mencement of the stroke is not only wasted, 
but is more than wasted, for it largely in¬ 
creases the air friction and retards the 
speed, while the screw propeller of the 
aeroplane has no lost motion. Yet less than 
two ounces of fuel in the shape of body 
fat suffices to force the bird at a high rate 
of speed over that 2,500 mile course. A 
thousand pound aeroplane to be as economi¬ 
cal would have to fly 20 miles on the force 
from a single pint of gasolene. 
Some birds migrate by day and others by 
night. Day migrants include the ducks and 
geese, the hawks and such birds as the 
gulls, swallows and nighthawks that are en¬ 
dowed with exceptional aerial powers. The 
K 
A flock of white ibis. Greek and Roman writers give many fabulous stories regarding this bird, arising from 
the fact that the sacred ibis arrives in Egypt coincidentally with the inundation of the Nile 
larger part of the small birds migrate at night for the sake of 
greater safety from the attacks of birds of prey. The night's 
flight is begun soon after dark and usually lasts only a few hours. 
Night migrants stop to feed during the day time; ducks and 
geese seldom fly more than an hour at a time, merely passing 
from one well known feeding spot to another, while the gulls, 
swallows and nighthawks catch their food while on the wing 
during migration. 
How do migrating birds find their way? They do not journey 
haphazard, for the familiar inhabitants of our dooryard martin 
boxes will return next year to these same boxes, though mean¬ 
while they have visited Brazil. If the entire distance was made 
over land, it might be supposed that sight and memory were the 
only factors used in the problem. But for those birds that cross 
the Gulf of Mexico, and still more so for 
the golden plover and its Atlantic Ocean 
crossing brethren, something more than 
sight is necessary. The best explanation 
seems to be that birds have a “sense of di¬ 
rection,” such as we know ourselves to 
possess, only in the case of the bird it is 
vastly more acute than with us. Some¬ 
times, however, the birds are caught by 
storms of such severity that their sense of 
direction fails them and then they become 
the prey of the lighthouses scattered along 
the coast. Tempest tossed and bewildered, 
they seem to be fascinated by the lantern 
rays piercing the darkness and hurl them¬ 
selves to death 
against 
the glass. A red 
A great many birds, among them the tiny 
hummingbird, fly 500 miles across the 
Gulf of Mexico without difficulty 
light or one that flashes is avoided, but a 
steady white light like that of Sombrero 
Key Light in southern Florida proves irre¬ 
sistible. As long as the light shone in the 
Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor 
many hundred birds were killed by it each 
year. Nor are the lighthouses the only 
peril to the migrant. Many a flock while 
crossing the Gulf or the Ocean is overtaken 
by storms and buffeted until with strength 
exhausted it sinks into a watery grave. 
Even the comparatively short trip across 
the Great Lakes has proved disastrous 
(Continued on page 331) 
