SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



" Some creatures can make provision against 

 change of season, without stirring from their 

 ordinary haunts : some migrate, quitting Pontus 

 and other cold countries after the Autumnal 

 equinox, migrating from warm lands to cool lands 

 to avoid the coming heat. In some cases they 

 migrate from places near at hand : in others they 

 may be said to come from the ends of the world. 

 Pelicans . . . depart in flocks, and the birds 

 in front wait for those in the rear, owing to the 

 fact that when the flock is passing over inter- 

 vening mountains, the birds in the rear lose sight 

 of their companions in the van .... 

 ' ' Quails when they migrate have no leaders, but 

 when they leave, the glottis flits along with them, 

 as does also the landrail and the eared owl." 



An important statement is made by Aristotle, 

 a statement based plainly on what were taken to 

 be general probabilities but which unfortunately 

 is put forward dogmatically, and as though it 

 were the out-come of direct observation : — 



' ' A great number of birds go into hiding. . . 

 Swallows have been found m holes : the kite on 

 its first emergence from torpidity has been seen 

 to fly from out some such hiding place. In 

 these cases of ' periodic torpor ' there is no dis- 

 tinction observed, whether the talons of a bird be 

 crooked or straight : for mstance, the stork, the 

 ouzel, the turtle-dove, and the lark all go into 

 hiding." 



Thus, as Dr. Eagle Clarke states, Aristotle must 

 be taken to be the originator of the tmhappy 

 "hibernation" theory — an unfounded dogma 

 which has been put forward by countless subse- 

 quent writers as though the phenomenon had 

 been actually seen by them, in place of being a 

 mere parrot-like repetition of a generally-held 



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