THE INTELLIGENCE OF BIRDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 252, 17 October 1908, Page 3

THE INTELLIGENCE OF BIRDS.

Birds, undoubtedly, have at least oin sense denied to man. which may be called the sense of locality. A pair of swallows will nest in .May under the eaves of a certain house in the suburbs o/ London, and raise a second brood in the following October or November on a pillow of u ruined temple liv the Nile. The following spring they are back at llicir Kuglish summer residence, and next winter the same temple so"s fliem once more. Many other birds, with far less wing-power and speed than the swallow, will accomplish I'cals equally wonderful. The tiny warblers which appear to have strength iiisullicicul 10 cross one held at a single llight will find their way through the darkness of night over leagues of open sea, and land safely at the journey's end. So remarkable is this sense of locality that migrating 'birds, as we now know, follow at each migration the same lly-liucs. Some go south, and return north across France and Spain, crossing to Africa over the straits of Cibraltar; otlicm. go via Corsica and Sardinia; others, again, by Italy ami Sicily. The young liird s 'seem to know their way as well as the older ones, and unless there i» heavy weather,- they never lose themselves, liirds have no calendars, but most of them know dates. Most of the regular migrants do not wait for cold weather to drive them away from the northern shores. In some, to us, mysterious method they are aware, weeks ahead of the first frost, that it is lime to start, and although the sun is still hot, and food plentiful, they gather in vast throngs and lly away. The swifts nlwavs leave almost vxactlv a fortnig'it before the lirst cold snap of autumn. Speaking of the prophetic instinct of. birds, nearly all of them have some means, which is beyond us to explain, of knowing beforeb 1 what the weather is going to do. Jt is a familiar fn,:-l that if the peacock shrieks before going to roost there will be rain before morning. The missel-thrush perches high and si"gs before rain. Indeed, in many parts of the country this bird is known as the slorm-cock. I'arrols and canaries always exhibit a great restlessness before rain. Thev move from perch to perch, and preen their feathers inauv Tiours before visible signs of the approach of storm.