ANNUAL MIGRATIONS 131 



whose gonads had reached the maximum also 

 proved to be stay-at-homes. The junco is unknown 

 to most people and is, in Alberta, protected by law. 

 It would thus have been both useless and illegal to 

 attempt to get Albertans to watch for the birds, 

 secure them and return them. And not a single 

 return has been accidentally obtained. But it was 

 obviously most desirable to discover what became 

 of these departures. Did the birds with the increas- 

 ing gonads actually go north ? Did those with their 

 organs in regression go south? If the first were the 

 case, the assumption so freely made by writers on 

 the subject, that migration is inherent, instinctive 

 behaviour, would be actually demonstrated. Un- 

 der no other circumstances would it be possible to 

 evoke the northern migration in the fall. Were it 

 not inherited behaviour, dependent on the past 

 history of the race, not on the experiences of the 

 present generation, it would be quite impossible to 

 induce the individual to go north when the entire 

 environment dictated migration in the opposite 

 direction. It would only be possible were the indi- 

 vidual entirely ignorant of the significance of the 

 act of migrating northwards. 



Support for the argument is provided by the 

 persistent northward flight of bluebirds (Sialia 

 currucoides) and other species in belated springs 



