The Migration of BirdsCoward, T. A. (Thomas Alfred)
Science
The Migration of Birds
Coward, T. A. (Thomas Alfred)
Birds -- Migration
Some writers affirm that birds only migrate on the wing, but the journey
by sea of many species is varied in method. Those very regular migrants,
the puffins and guillemots, which the light keepers assure us leave and
return to their stations almost at fixed dates, move by slow nautical
stages, swimming and feeding as they go. On May 2nd, 1911, I watched
a red-throated diver slowly travelling north; it actually travelled
farther beneath the surface than either by swimming or flying, so long
as I had it in view. The penguin's migrations cannot possibly be on
the wing. Dr Brooks rightly contended that the periodic assemblage of
wandering sea-birds at their "rookeries" is true migration, regular
as the almanack, although the feeding area is immense and the birds
do not reach home by any single path. Seebohm tells us of young bean
geese migrating in full moult, marching in an army to the interior of
the Tundra, and Mr W. H. Hudson, in "Birds and Man," relates a pathetic
story of a pair of upland geese in southern Buenos Ayres. His brother
saw them in August, the early spring of South America, leaving the
plains where they had wintered to breed in Magellanic islands. The main
flocks had departed, but these two birds, the female with a broken wing,
were steadily moving south, the male taking short flights and waiting
for her, as if to urge her on, and the female walking. "And in this
sad, anxious way they would journey on to the inevitable end, when a
pair or family of carrion eagles would spy them--and the first would be
left to continue the journey alone."
* * * * *
CHAPTER XI
SUMMARY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account