Page:Bird-lore Vol 04.djvu/164



The Destructive Effects of a Hail-storm Upon Bird Life

BY H, MCI. MORTON. M.D., Minneapolis. Minn.

THROUGH the familiar works of Gatke and others, through light— house reports, and through personal observation, ornithologists have been made conversant with the many remarkable accidents and fatalities which occur to our birds, and especially during the trying ordeal of migration. As an indication of one of these many possible vicissitudes in the life of a bird, I take pleasure in acceding to the editor's request that I write a brief report of the deadly effect upon bird life of an unusually severe hail-storm, accompanied by a very high wind. which occurred in Minneapolis during the summer of 1901. After an afternoon and evening of threatening weather on August 25, a section of this city was visited by one of the most alarming and destructive rain- and hail-storms in the history of our local weather bureau. Accord- ing to our imaginative—and I think pardonably so—newspaper reporter, “Hailstones as big as teacups, driven by a Wind which gave them the momentum of a sixvpound shell,” were among the very unusual features of this sudden and alarming phenomenon The path of the storm, which was not more than half a mile wide, passed through the central residence and park district of Minneapolis, and from a northwesterly to a southeasterly direction. Loring Park, the most central and attractive of our metropolitan reserves, suffered severely, trees being uprooted, branches torn, and foot-paths converted into great gullies three to four feet in depth; the pebbles, sand and mud thus carried away being deposited over the lower grassy areas of the park to a depth of from one to three feet. Added to this was the almost entire defoliation in certain areas of the park. due to the bail. That such results as these must of necessity have occurred will be evident from this extract which I take from the local weather report. These observations apply to the immediate region of the