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Show LEAVES' horn V"! IU S.,)5BRRiET MAYK'ILSONj The Migrating Hordes Yesterday, perhaps, you were working in your garden, laying your plans for your spring gardening, raking rak-ing up old vines and stalks, burning the rubbish in short, making ready for the spring season that follows so swiftly upon the heels of winter. The day was so still you could hear the drumming of a woodpecker in a distant woodlot or the mellow sound of the schoolbell, a mile away, calling call-ing the children in from recess. The sun was warm on your back. Still, it was a lovely day and you looked with delight upon the somewhat draggled-looking robin which tagged you around the garden, picking up dropped seeds; your eyes rejoiced in the flashing color of the bluebird, darting from fencepost to fencepost; once a chimney swift flashed, in speedy flight, across your field of vision. These were some of your summer birds. They were coming back after the long winter months. You missed them then and wondered where and how they had gone. WHERE AND HOW WHY AND WHEN DO THE BIRDS GO? Of such value to all gardeners, orchardists and farmers are the services of the birds that all may well be concerned with their migrations. migra-tions. LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATIONS While it is generally known that many perhaps the majority of the birds which frequent our farms and woodlands in the North during the summer months, merely travel southward in the autumn far enough to find their accustomed foods, yet, some birds are known to make incredibly in-credibly long migratory flights. Some of our common summer residents resi-dents spend their winters in localities locali-ties well south of the equator perhaps per-haps on Argentinian pampas, or even in Patagonia. The arctic tern is said to be the champion "globe trotter." A government bulletin says of this remarkable bird: "Its name, 'arctic,' is well earned, as its breeding range is circum-polar circum-polar and it nests as far north as it can find a suitable place. The first nest to be found in this region was only IVi degrees from the North pole and it contained a downy chick surrounded by a wall of newly fallen snow that had been scooped out by the parent. In North America it breeds south in the interior to Great Slave lake, and on the Atlantic coast to Massachusetts. After the young are grown, the arctic terns disappear disap-pear from their North American breeding grounds, and a few months later they may be found in the Antarctic Ant-arctic region, 11,000 miles away." NIGHT TRAVEL OF BIRDS Although most birds appear to be rather helpless in the dark, going to roost at dusk and arousing only when early daylight calls, nevertheless neverthe-less thousands and thousands of them migrate in night flights. All lovers of field and woodland have noted that on some given day in early spring it may be that not a bird will be visible, yet on the following fol-lowing morning flocks of them will appear everywhere, proof that they have come back in the night. HEIGHT AND SPEED OF . MIGRATORY FLIGHT It was assumed at one time that birds flew at great altitudes, but, since man's conquest of the air, it has been realized that flight is increasingly in-creasingly difficult as air becomes rarefied with altitude, partly because be-cause of the reduction of oxygen supply sup-ply and partly because of a lack of buoyancy in the rarefied air. Therefore, There-fore, although some of the birds with excessive wing spread, such as cranes and storks, have been seen (with binoculars) flying at 20,000 feet above sea level, the fact remains re-mains that migration in general is effected below 3,000 feet. The speed of flight varies greatly: Flycatchers loiter along at 10 to 17 miles per hour; the fast-flying mourning dove rarely exceeds 35 miles; herons and hawks, timed with an automobile speedometer, have been found to fly at 22 to 28 miles; aviators claim that at 65 miles an hour they can overtake the fastest ducks. The greatest bird speeds reliably recorded are of the swifts and the duck hawk from 100 to 180 miles per hour. NEED FOR PROTECTION DURING MIGRATION The hazards of migration are many, and have been greatly increased in-creased by changes brought about by man's occupation of one-time feeding and resting grounds. There is need for bird refuges, and for a general legal protection of the migrating mi-grating hordes. For further information, send ten cents to Superintendent of Documents. Washington, Washing-ton, D. C, asking for Circular No. 363, "The Migration of North American Birds." . THE GRAND FIR This conifer is well named, since it grows usually from 150 to 200 feet high, and frequently to a height of 250 to 275 feet. It is usually called "white fir" because its smooth bark is splashed with grayish-white blotches. FEED FOR GOSLINGS Goslings need no feed until they are 36 to 48 hours old. They should then be fed stale bread soaked in milk or water; or, they may be given a mash made of four parts corn meal and 1 part middlings. |