Page:The Migration of Birds - Thomas A Coward - 1912.pdf/128



dangers to which migratory birds are subjected during their journeys are but, little less than those which would befall them if they remained in unsuitable zones. During longer oversea passages fatigue and hunger weed out the weaklings sudden storms and adverse winds strike them Where no land is near, and they are carried often far from the goal they aimed at. Predatory birds accompany them, making toll en route, and predatory man waits for the tired wanderers with gun and net. Shore birds may rest upon the waves; sandpipers have been seen feeding as they walked upon the drifting weed of the Sargasso Sea, and steamers and other vessels frequently provide a rest for weary birds; but what happens to the many which find no haven? "Woe to the luckless warbler Whose feathers once become water-soaked!—a grave in the ocean or a burial in the sand of the beach is the inevitable result," says Mr Cooke. A storm on Lake Michigan during spring migration piled many birds along the shore, and in the wider Gulf of Mexico many hundreds of passage birds were seen to fall into the water when