Wliile it is unduubied that the impulse to migrate is inherited, many orni- 

 thologists are of opinion that the ability to do so is not hereditary, but has to be 

 acquired, and is, in fact, the result of the education of the young by old and ex- 

 perienced birds. This theory might be accepted as an explanation of the wonderful 

 faculty which enables them to find their way over the thousands of miles which 

 sometimes intervene between their summer and winter homes if all birds were 

 gregarious at the time of migration, and if the old and young united and made the 

 journey together. Some species do this, but in other cases the adults migrate before 

 the young, and there are still other species the individuals of which strike out 

 singly and perform the whole journey alone. Birds of this latter class must have 

 inherited the ability to migrate as well as the impulse. 



A striking example of individual migration is ail'orded by the IJuby-throated 

 Humming Bird. These little creatures migrate by day, so their movements can 

 be observed. In the spring they reach Southern Ontario early in May, the males 

 preceding the females by a week or more. Through June they are occupied in 

 nesting, and early in July the adult males abandon their mates and young and 

 go south. In September the females and young gradually take their departvire. 

 Just at this season dozens of them in a day may be seen flying swiftly from east 

 to west along the shore of Lake Ontario, following the route taken by all our 

 migrants here, though this course is not so invariably followed by them as by all 

 other day-flying species, for I have, on several occasions, seen a little Huuiming 

 Bird strike out over the lake flying directly from north to south, the distance here 

 fi-om shore to shore being about thirty-five miles. Humming Birds when migrat- 

 ing always fly low, so that it is impossible for them to gain any knowledge of their 

 course by the exercise of their vision. It seems evident, then, that as they have no 

 opportunity to be educated as to the route they should follow, and that even their 

 acute sight cannot be of very great service in guid'ug them over a course which 

 may in some individuals extend from Hudson's Bay to Brazil, they must be 

 possessed of a peculiar faculty which enables them to act upon their inherited 

 impulse to migrate when the season for flight arrives. 



Of this wonderful instinct which plays so important a part in migration there 

 is, I think, but one explanation to be given, viz. : That, as nature provided the 

 periodical migrations of certain forms of life for the purpose of maintaining an 

 equable distribution of those forms o\er all parts of the earth during the seasons 

 best fitted for iheir maintenance, the necessary +'aculties to enable them to carry out 

 this provision were developed with the impulse which induces the movement of 

 dispersal. 



HAWKS AND OWLS. 



Among the most injurious pests of the farmer and fruit grower are the small 

 animals commonly known as rats and mice; individually they are insignificant; 

 but where permitted to increase, their productiveness soon renders them formidable. 



It is very difficult to make anything like a correct estimate of the average 

 damage inflicted upon the country liy these creatures, but every farmer knows by 

 sad experience that he continually suffers from their work. 



The enormous amount of grain thev destroy and the young trees girdled and 

 killed by them are visible to e\ery one, but the perpetrators of the mischief, owing 

 to their nocturnal habits and secretive lives, are comparatively seldom seen. Their 

 enormous increase of late years, and consequent capacity for serious mischief, is, of 

 course, owing to the fact tlial man has seriously interfered with the balance of 



