torpidity, while numerous insects start from their winter tombs, and flutter gladly in the balmy atmosphere. It is at this auspicious period, that the snow-buntings, and perhaps some other winter birds, having lingered probably for a time in the intervening islands of Shetland, Faroe, and Iceland, arrive on this awakened coast, which they render vocal with their song; and, while they find a congenial climate, and food adapted to their nature, immediately begin the important offices required for the continuance of the species, obtaining, in this remote island, a retreat comparatively free from the molestation of their enemies. In a few weeks, the sun begins again to lose its genial warmth, and symptoms of approaching winter warn these annual visitants to return to a more temperate climate; but this interval has sufficed, not only for the hatching of the brood, but for their being reared and cherished till they have acquired a strength of wing enabling them to accompany their adventurous parents, in shaping their pathless way for hundreds of miles across a stormy and apparently shoreless ocean, without a single landmark in the distant horizon to direct their course.

The case of the little snow-bunting is only a particular instance, though a striking one, of that wonderful instinct which belongs to so many of the feathered family. It marks, in a very lively manner, the peculiar features, the extent, and the beneficent intentions of this impulse of a wonder-working power; and, while it fills the pious mind with an undefinable feeling of awe, under the sense of a present Deity, directs it to the cheering doctrines, and blessed promises, of Revealed Truth, and may well serve to increase its confidence in the never-failing protection of a reconciled Father, who bestows those secret and mysterious influences of Divine grace, through which the Christian is led by a way which he knows not, from the wintry scenes of earth, to the glories of an eternal

summer.

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The snow-bird of America is another of the feathered tribe, which the hand of a beneficent Providence drives northwards to fulfil some important end. When the weather begins to be warm, the snow-bird moves towards

the colder regions, and arrives about the Hudson's Bay Factory in June, whence it continues its course still further north, where it breeds. This kind is so numerous as to be found scattered over the greater part, probably the whole, of the northern regions of North America, in great profusion. Speaking of this remarkable species, Mr. Wilson says, "In the circuitous route I travelled, of more than 1800 miles, I never passed a day, and scarcely a mile, without seeing numbers of these birds, and frequently large flocks of several thousands."

The impulse which urges these tenants of the air to seek the wilds of the north, is evidently connected with the instinct which leads them to propagate the species; and indeed some naturalists are of opinion, that, in all instances of migration, the same instinct operates. However this may be, it is certain that these little creatures find a more secure retreat in the countries near the Arctic Circle, for the important purpose of incubation, than could readily be chosen in the circle of their summer haunts. But, while they thus escape many formidable enemies, they are probably not altogether free from danger; for their appearance will be hailed as a seasonable boon of Providence, by the scattered inhabitants of these inhospitable regions, who must find, in this annual supply of dainty food, thus mysteriously sent them by an Unseen Hand, an agreeable and wholesome variety, after being confined, during the dismal winter months, to the unvarying sameness of that coarse and oily nourishment, which their rude skill extracts from the surrounding seas.

EIGHTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

HYBERNATION.-BIRDS WHICH PARTIALLY MIGRATE.

THERE are some of the British feathered tribes, which, although they do not pass beyond the sea, are yet, to a

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certain extent, migratory within the bounds of the island. These are chiefly influenced in their change of residence, by the desire of finding a more remote retreat, for the purpose of incubation, or of acquiring a more plentiful supply of food, or, perhaps, in some instances, a more sheltered place of residence during the stormy months. "Of these," says Mr. Rennie, may be mentioned, in our country, the curlew and golden-plover, which in winter reside chiefly along the shores, while in summer they betake themselves to the inland lakes and moors; the lapwing, which seems to move northwards in winter; the linnet, which in that season deserts the hilly regions, and approaches the habitations of man; and the dipper, which in summer ascends the streams, towards their sources.'

But it is in continental countries, and especially in America, where interminable forests are mingled with districts and bounded by regions cultivated by the labor of man, and teeming with crops of grain, that the most remarkable instances of this kind of partial migration take place. The countless multitude of pigeons in that country, which, at particular seasons, shift their residence in continuous and almost interminable flocks, have long been the admiration of travellers. Audubon, in his usual graphic manner, describes a flight of this tribe, of which he was an eyewitness. "In the autumn of 1813," says he, "I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens, a few miles below Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast to southwest in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before; and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task that I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured on in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes.

I travelled on, and still met more, the further I proceeded. The air was literally filled with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose." "Before sunset," he adds afterterwards, "I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession." * * * "The atmosphere, during this time, was strongly impregnated with the peculiar odor which emanates from the species."

Though not entirely to the point we are considering, we willingly yield to the temptation of inserting a striking passage which occurs in this account :-"I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended, and swept close over the earth, with inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly, so as to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent.

These flights are, doubtless, in search of food, and may throw some light on the nature of the principle by which migrations are influenced, as they are obviously regulated by an impulse, if not observing and intelligent, at least capable of being adapted to new circumstances, and of taking advantage of new discoveries. Catesby mentions, that since the discovery of America has introduced crops of foreign grain into that once savage and uncultivated country, not only have these comparatively novel articles of food become the familiar resource of native birds from distant regions, but various species of the winged tribes, naturally strangers to that continent, have, by some means, become aware of the existence of such exotic stores, and arrive annually in numerous flocks,

at the proper season, to avail themselves of this new provision for their wants. The rice-bird and the wheatbird are of this description. The latter, if Catesby's observations be correct, has taken this new course of migration across the sea from the island of Cuba, between one and two hundred miles distant from the nearest point of the mainland, leaving that region immediately after the rice harvest, and alighting in Carolina in time to partake of the rice crop in that latter climate, and afterwards of the ripening wheat in the more northerly plains of Virginia. It is, indeed, but a few years, since the wheatbirds first found their way to this latter State, where they now regularly flock at the proper season, in such numbers, as materially to interfere with the gains of the far

mer.

This is a very interesting view of the nature of the winged family, and gives rise to some curious and difficult questions. By what means do birds ascertain the introduction of their proper food into these new and distant regions? How do they communicate the information to their fellows, after they have obtained it? And when once known, by what faculty is it perpetuated in the individuals, and transmitted to their posterity? Are we to believe that, like man, they make distant voyages of discovery in search of new stores; that they possess a faculty resembling that of speech, by which they convey a knowledge of the discoveries they have made; and that they are furnished with memories sufficiently retentive, and reasoning powers sufficiently strong, to enable them, from year to year, as the season returns, to profit by the new knowledge they have acquired? This seems to be Catesby's opinion; and it would, doubtless, readily account for these and various other phenomena of a similar nature, which may occur to the inquiring mind; but it seems to be so inconsistent with what is known of the limited mental power of birds, that it will not readily be assented to, and we must, probably, look for the true solution in some qualities bearing more resemblance to the admitted faculties of the race. If, however, we attempt to pursue the inquiry further, we shall, perhaps, here, as