Show I Birds as Travelers I Is s tho the English sparrow good for anything any any- thing was one of many questions asked at the close of a lecture on birds hird by ly John A. A Bryant Brant official government observer of birds in mu Kansas City Cit In Inthis Inthis this case car Mr lr Bryants Bryant's rel reply l was brief F Food he said But that was not his opinion of 01 birds in general Wo ought to take talce care of our oar birds J ho explained n not t only because they thoy are arc beautiful and aud instructive but I because they aro are useful Many birds feed on the tho ee EN seeds ds of noxious weeds I Others save e us ns from b swarms of insects Tho cuckoo for example exam exam- pie pe feeds almost entirely on an lars The Tho meg remarkable phenomenon of If bird life lifo is the vast Dst enterprise they show in in migration Some Sorno birds travel el I from Alaska to Patagonia that is about miles milos just for a ten weeks visit II Amou these theo o are the tho ni night ht hawk and the tho plover They move e in n a fairly straight bt J line ne up and down the two con cou- s. The Tho curl curlew ow takes in in Labrador by the way It does oes this on account of 01 ofa a particular taste it has bas for a moss found only in Labrador How Plover flies Flics Our HOur common robin is a great reat traveler tray trav eler oler too although ho lie does docE not cross crossI the gulf lf When ho be passes here hor on ou his I northward journey he is us moving slowly Jowh When bo ho l' l reaches the Canada line ho is isi j i traveling about one thirty miles mUes a day The first robins are aro found to pass that ATh Amil il 10 and they the reach Aa Alaska I May lav 3 by which time timo the tho ate rato of movement move move- mont ment has has' increased to t seventy miles a day Migratory birds make their flights as a rule either cither wholly by day av or by ni night bt Tho rho plover is an exception It flics s almost continually by bv day and nd n night That is one reason why we e bird birr I watchers have havo to know the tho calls of birds eo so that wo we can hear what is going go go- lug ing on ou io iu tho dark I The height attained by bv some OlDe birds in migration is almost incredible It has bas been ascertained that some sarno make their pilgrimage at a sad steady level cl of five miJ miles s above aboc sea se-i el level lo To observe o these special glasses are aro needed With ith them wo YO can see sec passing passin acro across the tho dise of the sun sumi or oi o of the moon mooD literally m millions S i lof of birds which aro are otherwise invisible But all time the bir birds s can see seo us ug better bolter than I I we wo o can see them A hawk bak perched high 1 on oil the dome of a church cau can see seo a little I grasshopper on Oil the ground I i Many Killed by Towers My Mv f special work is to get et oat ont into I the w woods early in the tho morning morning- Some bourn days davs I see sec three or four our now ow birds other othor I days davs none Quite Quito often I can t tell ll ton or fifteen kinds of birds are aro there thoro just by their voices It is easier ea to spot them that way an anti and just as QS sure as waiting to sec cc them Then of course wo vo can recognize nizo nize thorn them b. b by thc their 1 flight Tho The government govern o mont ment has meu men meu all over the country watching birds in iu this way and aud getting precise s data about their habits ap and food We examine time the stomachs of ot bir birds s sI I t to make sure of what they eat cut Many bir birds i are aro killed by bv towers and aDd high hien I buil buildings in s. s When a tower towel is built hunI hundreds hun hun- ot of birds fly tl- up against it and aed fall dead in the first mi migration After that I the others seem to got get ot to know it Anyhow Any An how bow they avoid it |