Migration of Birds

They Fly at Great Altitudes and Attain Speed Well Nigh Incredible

Boston Herald: The investigations of the celebrated artist and savant, Heinrich Gootke, have thrown an interesting light on many facts hitherto unknown concerning the migration of birds. It has been noticed that when the time of departure comes the birds vanish as if by magic. This is explained in various ways. The migration flight is always at an extremely lofty altitude, and it also takes place generally at night. The structure of birds renders them capable of existing at an incredible height. They can ascend to an elevation of from 35,000 to 40,000 feet, and at such heights sustain great muscular efforts for considerable lengths of time. At this altitude birds attain to astounding speed, a speed which seems to come to them simply for the purpose of migration. While the swallow is supposed to fly with the speed of the fastest train, the northern blue-throat, a bird which under normal conditions only hops, makes the journey from Central Africa to Heligoland in a spring night of scarcely nine hours. Its average rate is therefore 180 geographical miles an hour. The Virginia plover, according to Mr. Gootke, travels at the rate of four miles a minute, that is, 240 miles an hour. This incredible speed is of course only attained at great altitudes, where the extreme rarity of the air causes less loss of muscular power in overcoming friction and there is no wind to act as an impediment to progress. What guides birds in their migration? After fifty years of study Mr. Gootke refuses even to attempt to answer of this question from a scientific point of view. What adds to the mystery is that young birds of the year–their age not exceeding six or eight weeks–perform this first journey of their lives with the same unerring certainty as the old individuals which follow a month or so later.