rendered it to them little else than a continuance of the blessings of summer.

A continental writer has attempted to define the impulse which induces birds to migrate; but he has been forced to do so, after minute attention, more by negatives than by any positive and very intelligible assertion of a principle. "It is not want of nourishment," says M. Brehm," for most of them commence their migration while there is still abundance in the country they are leaving. Atmospherical currents are not the cause, nor do the changes of season explain it, as the greatest number set off while the weather is yet fine; and others, as the larks and starlings, arrive while the season is bad. Atmospherical influences can only hasten the migration in autumn, but must rather retard or derange it in spring. It is the presentiment of what is to happen, which determines birds to begin their journey. It is an instinct which urges them, and which initiates them into the meteoric changes that are preparing. They have a particular faculty of foreseeing the rigours of the coming season; an exquisite sensibility to the perception of atmospherical changes which are not yet arrived, but are approaching."

The same intelligent and judicious writer states some facts relative to the manner of these migrations, which he conceives to be established; and, as they are curious in themselves, and condensed into few words, we shall make no apology for quoting them. "Every bird has its native country, where it freely reproduces, and remains part of the year, travelling in the remainder. Most birds spend half the year at their home, and pass the other half in travelling. Some, particularly birds of prey, travel by day, but by far the greater part travel by night; and some perform their migrations indifferently, either by day or night. They seem to pass the whole of their migration without sleep; for they employ the day in seeking their food, stopping in the places where they are most likely to find it. They commonly keep

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very high in the air, and always at nearly the same distance from the earth, so that they rise very high over mountains, and fly lower along valleys. They require a wind that blows against them, as a contrary wind assists in raising them."*

In some subsequent papers, we shall follow out this interesting subject, by entering into a few details; but we cannot conclude this preliminary sketch, without a single remark respecting the astonishing faculty on which the migratory habits of birds are founded.

It would be vain to look for a solution of the phenomena of migration in the reasoning powers of the birds themselves. They have obviously neither a faculty of reflection, nor a geographical nor meteorological knowledge, which could enable them either to plan or to execute so astonishing an enterprise; and we are compelled to rank this means of self-preservation among the numerous habits and practices of the lower animals, which Brehm calls " a presentiment," an instinct," 66 an exquisite sensibility," and which the immortal Newton justly and piously ascribes to “nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a powerful and ever-living agent."

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EIGHTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

HYBERNATION.-MIGRATION OF BIRDS CONTINUED.

CURIOSITY has long directed its inquiries to ascertain the countries to which our various birds of passage mi

* Quoted from Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on Faculties of Birds, p. 286. There appears in these remarks rather too much disposition to generalize. The author of the article from which the quotation is extracted, observes, that the last statement must be subject to some very large exceptions The same may be probably said of some of the rest; and particularly of the first, which seems to aver that every bird travels through part of the year.

grate during the winter months; but it is mortifying to think how little definite information has been obtained on so interesting a question. That several of our native birds are capable of taking long and rapid flights, is generally known. The swallow and the hawk, for example, can continue on the wing, without rest, for many hours, and are believed to be capable of travelling at the amazing rate of 150 miles in the hour. Supposing, however, the average rate of the flight of birds to be only one-third of this velocity, it is obvious that they may, without difficulty, perform journeys to any extent necessary for carrying them to the warmest climates. From the British shore to the coast of France, the distance is comparatively so trifling, that, even taking the broadest part of the channel, it could, at the moderate average we have mentioned, be performed in little more than two hours; and thence again, stretching through the intervening countries of France and Spain, the journey to Africa might be accomplished in the short period of two or three days, making all reasonable allowance for needful rest. Supposing such data to be correct, this would obviously be no formidable labour; and, that we have not overstated the powers of the feathered race, may be gathered from various known facts. It is a matter of history, that a falcon belonging to Henry IV. of France, having escaped from Fountainbleau, was found, at the end of twenty-four hours, at Malta, a distance of about 1350 miles! It has been said, that birds generally begin their flight with an adverse wind; but, granting this to be the case, which we may be permitted to doubt, the intention probably is, that they may thus be assisted in rising into a higher region of the atmosphere, where they may expect to meet with a counter current; for we can scarcely suppose that they purposely encounter the disadvantage of a permanent contrary breeze; and, should the gale be favourable, they would, without any effort, except what was just necessary to keep them afloat, be borne along, with the moving element, at the rate of

thirty, forty, or even eighty miles an hour. As to the power of birds to keep, for a lengthened period, on wing, many remarkable facts have been mentioned. That of the blue bird of America seems to be beyond dispute, which, though one of the smaller species, passes and repasses annually, in great quantities, from the mainland to the Bermudas, a distance of not less than 600 miles, without any intervening land. Nothing is more common in Pennsylvania," says Wilson, “than to see large flocks of these birds, in spring and fall, passing at considerable heights in the air, from the south in the former, and from the north in the latter season.'

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The distance to which some birds migrate from their native place, may be illustrated by the following anecdote, if it be worthy of credit, related in the article on the "Faculties of Birds," already alluded to, as found in several public journals. "Last year (1833), a Polish gentleman having caught a stork upon his estate, near Lemburg, put round its neck an iron collar, with this inscription. Hæc ciconia ex Polonia' (This stork comes from Poland),—and set it at liberty. This year (1834), the bird returned to the same spot, and was again caught by the same person. It had acquired a new collar of gold, with the inscription, India cum donis, remittit ciconiam Polonis' (India sends back the stork to the Poles with gifts). The gentleman having shown the inscription to his neighbours, again set the bird at liberty."

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We shall not now be surprised to hear that the swallow, as well as several other British birds, such as the nightingale and the quail, should find its way to the shores of Africa. Indeed, if it possess the strength and swiftness of the American blue- bird, and there is every reason to believe that it exceeds this point rather than falls short, it would require but a small resting-place in its passage, and arrive with ease on the second day.

As to the mode of migration, this differs in different species, some assembling in vast flocks, and taking their

flight together, such as swallows, geese, &c., while others seem to prefer plying their solitary way. Of this latter kind is the cuckoo, which indeed is seldom at any time observed in company even with its mate. But what would scarcely be expected, and cannot easily be accounted for on the analogy of the other habits of the feathered family, there seem to be some kinds of birds, the males of which take their migratory flight unaccompanied by the females, who follow them at the interval of some days; and others, the females of which lead the way, and leave their mates behind. The nightingale and the wheat-ear are said to be of the ungallant habits of the first mentioned species.

While those birds, whose food fails, or becomes scanty in winter, take their flight, as we have seen, to more southern climates, their place is partly supplied by the immigration of winged strangers from the shores of the north, actuated obviously by a similar impulse, namely, that of escaping from a more rigorous region, and finding a supply of congenial food, when that of their summer haunts is about to be exhausted. These are chiefly seafowl, or the frequenters of lakes, or the inhabitants of fens and marshes; and it is doubtless, the approach, though not perhaps the actual arrival, of frost, about to bind their more northerly places of resort in icy fetters, and thus to render them unfit for their subsistence, which has made the instinct necessary that drives them southward.

It is worthy of notice, and what might confidently be expected from the nature of the case, that although our summer visitants are not confined to any particular order or tribe, including, not only both land and water-fowl, but devourers of all different kinds of food, yet of those which reside among us, in winter, there are none insectivorous, and very few granivorous. It is also remarkable, that, while all our summer birds of passage hatch their young in this country, few, if any, of the winter kinds remain to execute this necessary duty. They leave our