Page 64 - The Miracle of Migration in Animals

THE MIRACLE OF MIGRATION IN ANIMALS

The route the birds take on this journey is marked as A-B-C in
the illustration on the opposite page. Without doubt, a superior
characteristic enables them to find their way to such distant re-
gions. But when we look at the route the birds follow, a much
more remarkable ability is revealed.
Between A and C in the drawing, two routes are indicated.

You can see that the unbroken line showing the A-B-C path is
shorter than the dotted line. The A-B-C line in fact shows the short-
est route between A and C. We can compare this line to a line con-
necting two points on an orange.
The route shown by the dotted line would be followed to get
from A to C using a magnetic compass. In other words, a pilot flies
from town A according to the angle that the airplane’s compass
shows for town C. If he keeps on without changing course, even-

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