The Migration of BirdsCoward, T. A. (Thomas Alfred)
Science
The Migration of Birds
Coward, T. A. (Thomas Alfred)
Birds -- Migration
The white stork, _Ciconia alba_, has been systematically ringed in
Rossitten in East Prussia, in Denmark and in Hungary for some years, and
Mr A. L. Thomson gives a brief summary of the interesting results up to
date, in "British Birds" for May, 1911. Ten young birds, taken during
their first autumn journey, show a general south-easterly trend through
Europe. Three east Prussian storks were obtained in Syria, one in the
April after it was marked, the other two in April and July of the second
year; another was taken in Palestine, and one Hungarian stork in Syria.
In the May of the year following that in which it was marked in Prussia
one was obtained at Alexandria. In their first autumn Prussian storks
have been recorded from near Lake Chad in October, from Rosaires on the
Blue Nile in the same month, and from the Victoria Nyanza at the end of
November. A ringed bird is reported from German East Africa, but full
details are wanting, but one shot at Fort Jameson in north-east Rhodesia
in December 1907 had only been hatched in Pomerania a few months before;
it left the nest on August 19th and began its journey south on or about
the 26th. In its first winter a Prussian bird was shot in the Kalahari
Desert.
Seven Prussian and about a dozen Hungarian birds have been obtained
in winter quarters in the Transvaal, Natal, and other parts of south
Africa, and one in German south-west Africa; one, recovered in the July
following the summer in which it was marked, was possibly a weakling
bird which had failed to make the return journey. Storks which had
returned are recorded in their first, second and third summer; most of
them having been found within a few miles of their birthplace. One bird,
marked as a nestling near Brunswick in 1906 was reported in June 1908
from Sorquitten in East Prussia, over 430 miles away. Mr Thomson, from
his reference to this being roughly in the same latitude but reached
by a different "line of flight," suggests that it is an exception;
this will be shown when some hundreds more cases have been collected.
It may, however, be found that some birds deliberately launch forth in
search of new homes, though at present it looks more like a bird which
on approaching the breeding area had banded itself with the wrong local
body of travellers.
A bird marked at Cassel in western Germany has been recorded from
Barcelona in Spain; this so far single record may indicate that storks
get lost, that there is no regular direction, or that there is more than
one, a south-westerly as well as a south-easterly route. That too, we
hope, will be shown in the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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