Word: birde
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...always liked bird dogs better than kennel-fed dogs myself. You know, ones who'll get out and hunt for food rather than sit on his fanny and yell...
...Naturalist Terres it was an old story. The 1,472-ft. Empire State Building, which is on the migratory flyway that leads down the U.S. East Coast, is a major obstruction to bird navigation. Migrating birds lack the dependable blind-flying instruments that enable an airplane pilot to fly with equanimity through dense clouds. Preferring to fly under a low ceiling, they often crash by hundreds against the Empire State. For some unexplained reason, they do not seem to hit mountains, and Manhattan skyscrapers almost as high as the Empire State seldom kill many birds...
...Mystery. On the night before the bird-crash on the Observation Terrace, two dead bats were picked up. How bats navigate over long distances is not known, but their sonar apparatus (high-frequency sound-wave ranging) generally keeps them clear of even small obstacles like twigs or wires. There are few records of bat-crashes in instrument-flying weather, but two years ago bats began to pile into the Empire State. Terres thinks that the cluster of television antennae on the building may have something to do with it. The power of the antennae has increased recently and broadcasting...
Cash Value. The company looks on its birds as cheap and willing workers for the national good. Each guanay, it figures, eats 240 lbs. of anchovetas a year, processing its catch into 33 lbs. of guano. Twenty-two of the 33 lbs. is harvestable; the rest is lost, mostly at sea. The cash value of each bird's annual production is $1.04, and the company is the guardian of 30 million birds...
...company is not yet satisfied. It is establishing still more land colonies so that the birds can fish closer to home. It is thinking of killing off pelicans, which are big eaters but poor producers. Sometime in the future it hopes to be guarding 100 million bird workers...