BIRD MIGRATION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18426, 6 July 1925, Page 3

BIRD MIGRATION.

THE DANGERS THEY RUN IN FLIGHT. The installation of the greatest air beacon in the world at Mont Afrique, in Central France, may be welcomed with, joy of the airman, yet" will - be looked upon with horror by bird-lovers, writes T. C. Bridges ni the ''Daily Mail." With its tremendous lamps of one thousand million candle-power, this lighthouse is bound to work terrible destruction amor.g the great flights of migrant birds which at this time, and again in autumn cross France on their way to summer and winter quarters. Already the death-roll from, this cause is very serious. In a book on the migration of birds in Ireland by Mr R. M. Barrington there is inserted a note from the keepers of the Copelund Inland lighthouse relating to the ; early spring migration. "The air, 1 ' says the writer, "was filled with birds. The balcony outside tho light was. .completely covered with killed birds. There were five or six deep all round, so that one walked upon a carpet of their dead bodies."

At n'o othej- period of their existence do birds run so great and varied risks as during migration. If, caught by a change of wind while crossing the sea whole flights may lx> beaten down and drowned. Incidentally, how does the tiny goldcrest, weighing barely half an ounce, manage to cross at one flight the whole breadth of tho North Sea? Birds of jirev destroy immense numbers of migrants when tired by long flights, and—although I do not think this? fact is genernlJy known —g'llls aro also their savage enemies. Blackbirds, larks, and many other birdf, migrate by night, and usually complete their whole flight before d'.'.wn. But when delayed hv winds they are pursued and attacked "by gulls, who strike them down, then, settling on the water, devour them at leisure.

Worst of ail is the destruction caused by mar. l . In many places a regular business" is made of shooting or trapping birds which arrive worn out by a long journey.