INSTINCTS OF BIRDS. 289 



inclination which can thus overcome their paren- 

 tal affection, a feeling so energetic as frequently 

 to counteract one of the most powerful laws of 

 nature, self-preservation. No theory, in short, 

 which is not founded on the opinion that birds 

 of passage, in undertaking their annual journeys, 

 are influenced by an instinctive desire to migrate, 

 liable to be called into action by various exciting 

 causes, can satisfactorily account for the remark- 

 able phenomena which result from this periodical 

 disposition to wander. 



The certainty with which the carrier pigeon 

 directs its course towards its accustomed home, 

 from distant places where it has never been be- 

 fore, after every precaution has been taken in its 

 conveyance to prevent it from obtaining any 

 knowledge of the way by observation, must, as 

 well as the act of migration, to which it bears 

 a striking resemblance, be likewise attributed to 

 instinct. 



It appears then, from the foregoing observa- 

 tions, that the principal actions of birds, though 

 liable to be considerably modified by the opera- 

 tions of the intellectual powers and changes 

 of organization, as well as by various external 

 circumstances, are contrary to the opinion of 

 Dr. Darwin, decidedly of instinctive origin. 



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