Page:The Migration of Birds - Thomas A Coward - 1912.pdf/70

54 Even in these days of upper-air investigation we really know very little about the. speed, direction and steadiness of upper-air currents; but we do know that at a moderate elevation—some two or three thousand feet—the strength is usually greater than nearer the earth.

Mr Abel Chapman, in "Wild Norway," makes this pertinent remark—"Except by aid derived from the operation of physical laws, the nature and extent of which are unknown to me, and by taking advantage of 'Trade-wind' circulation in the upper air, I believe that migration is impossible for short-winged forms of sedentary habits—but that aid, and those advantages, may facilitate, and perhaps vastly accelerate, a process which is otherwise impossible."

In "Bird Life of the Borders" he goes further. "Birds are warmer-blooded than ourselves or other mammalia, and are capable of sustaining life in rarifiedrarefied [sic] atmospheres where these could not. By a simple mechanical ascent, they can reach, within a league or two, regions and conditions quite beyond human knowledge: where, selecting favouring air-strata, they may be able to rest without exertion; or find meteorological or atmospheric forces that mitigate or abolish the labours of ordinary flight, or possibly assist their progress. It is in the upper regions of open space where, I suggest, the final clue will be found" (12).