316 



THE UNIVERSE. 



to evade this universal law. These bird-fish, being intrepid 

 swimmers, are most at home in the midst of the ices, or the 

 roaring waves. They only haunt the shores of Africa in 

 order to scoop out their nests, hatch their eggs, and rear 

 their young. When the young have become sufficiently ro- 

 bust to support the fatigues of the journey, all these swim- 



148. The Passenger Pigeon: Columba migratoria. 



mers, mysteriously obeying an instinct of which the Creator 

 alone knows the aim, suddenly disappear from the African 

 shores, and seek, during six months of winter, the frightful 

 regions of the south pole, condemned to incessant struggles 

 amid tempests and ice. But at the return of spring the 

 penguins reappear in numerous troops, and cover anew the 

 banks now smiling with verdure, grouping themselves in 

 long processions, seemingly occupied only in revelling in 



