HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 7 



land. Anacreon sings of the return of the swallow in 

 spring to its nesting-place. 



Aristotle, the first to discourse fully on migration, 

 in his writings on natural history, gives definite 

 accounts of a number of migrant birds. He tells us 

 that the crane flies from the steppes of Scythia to the 

 marshlands at the source of the Nile, south of Egypt; 

 that pelicans migrate, as do the quails, the rock-dove, 

 and the turtle-dove, though of the last three a few 

 may linger during cold weather in protected locali- 

 ties. The swan, the land-rail, and the lesser goose 

 likewise pass toward warmer regions, while the 

 cuckoo goes away in July about the time that Sirius 

 the Dog-star rises. Pliny, the Roman, in his His- 

 toria Naturalis, written in the earliest years of the 

 Christian era, in treating of migration repeats 

 much of what has been said by Aristotle, but adds 

 that blackbirds (in this case the common thrush of 

 Europe), thrushes, and starlings pass to neighboring 

 countries; the ring-dove also is migratory to an 

 unknown winter home, as are the storks and cranes, 

 which he believes go to a great distance. 



The few known writings during the Dark Ages 

 that pertain to natural history, which include the 

 Bestiaries, accounts of hawking or falconry', and a 

 few other scattered manuscripts, contain little that 



^ The peregrine falcon {Falco peregrinus) was so called by falconers 

 because it was secured when grown as a "pilgrim" or migrant, and 

 was not taken from the nest when young as were other hawks used 

 in hunting. 



