74 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



human family was put to the same test as others, and came 

 out of it triumphant. The obstacles which he was forced 

 to cope with resulted in his great mental development that 

 placed him far in the van in this struggle for existence. 

 He invented clothing, made better dwellings, discovered 

 the uses of fire, and became a domesticator of the wild 

 animals, or, taking lessons from some others, stored away 

 food for the inclement season. Thus the most improved 

 race abandoned migration, and a great advance on civilisa- 

 tion was accomplished. 



In answer to Mr. Gregor's question as to the ' ' logical 

 reason " of the spring migration, I conclude that this 

 characteristic of certain species dates from the pleistocene 

 era of the tertiary period and has two causes — food supply 

 and comfort. 



Of the first category the examples are numerous and 

 present in everybody's mind. As to the second, a forcible 

 case would be that of the caribou of Newfoundland, which 

 seeks a temperature more suitable to their heavy body, 

 covering three hundred miles to the north of their winter 

 home, the most northerly point, in fact, which it is in their 

 power to reach, further progress being cut off by the straits 

 of Belle Isle. Here they pass the summer months in 

 comparative comfort. There is no lack of provender in 

 the southern land which they abandoned. The barrens 

 are covered with the white moss which forms their 

 principal nourishment, but the heat of their thick matted 

 hair becomes too oppressive to be borne. 



We know now however that many caribou reside per- 

 manently in the South, and do not migrate northwards 

 (see selons and miliars). 



This is undoubtedly also the case with our geese and 

 ducks and of all those varieties which greet us in the 

 spring and fall in this half-way house of their passage. 



We thus may reach the conclusion that, beginning with 

 the first modifications of climate, perhaps at the com- 

 mencement of the pleistocene era, the various forms of 

 life being suited to a uniform environment, sought in 

 their wanderings to and fro, the continuance of those 

 conditions. 



