June 



ful, aspects of a bird is the instinct controlling 

 its migrations, together with its power of com- 

 munication with its fellows. What a marvel- 

 lous ability these voyagers have, who, without 

 a chart, and with the light neither of sun nor 

 moon nor star to guide them, know how to find 

 their way unerringly through trackless space. 

 It gives one a strange feeling, to wake in the 

 dead of night and think of and occasionally 

 hear the thousands of kinglets, red-polls, pine- 

 creepers and black-throated greens, with others 

 large and small, pursuing their weird flight 

 over his head. By what language do they 

 signal their gathering together for the long 

 journey in spring ? And when the movement 

 is begun, is each a law unto himself, or do 

 they elect a leader, and how is it done? Or, 

 when they stop here and there for rest, what 

 determines the resumption of the journey ? 

 And at the close of summer, when their 

 thoughts turn southward, how is the rendez- 

 vous appointed from which the host is to re- 

 turn to a warmer clime ? 



" Who bids the stork, Columbus-like, explore 



Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 

 Who calls the council, states the certain day ? 

 Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? " 



177 



