VI. ORDER OF MIGRATION ACCORDING 

 TO AGE AND SEX 



The question as to the order of age and sex in whicli migrants 

 take up their annual join-neys is one on which, up to the most 

 recent time, there have prevailed more serious errors than on any 

 other problem comiected with the migration phenomenon. It was 

 generally supposed that the old birds acted as the leaders, teachers, 

 and guides of the young ones on their migrations; and although this 

 view was not based on any observations whatsoever in Nature, it 

 seemed so natural and reasonable that it was accepted in pure good 

 faith, without subjecting it to the test of observation and experi- 

 ence. In regard to this question, however, the last ten or fifteen 

 years have amply taught me what an almost hopeless task it is at 

 hrst sight to oppose an opinion which has remained uncontested for 

 a century. I did not of course expect that the results of my observa- 

 tions would have been at once accepted in toto ; but at the same 

 time I have been frequently almost amused to see with what caution, 

 not to say incredulity, the reports of my observations, in so far as 

 they contradicted traditional errors, were received. On the other 

 hand, this same opposition and distrust had the good eftect of 

 directing a much greater amount of attention to this phenomenon 

 from different sides ; and the number of species in regard to which 

 one had become gradually convinced that their young commenced 

 their autumn migration long before their parents, has been increased 

 from year to year. 



Naumann's statements on this question, which will be con- 

 sidered more fully later on, are, as a matter of course, based on the 

 most searching observations ; they were made, however, in latitudes 

 too far south to allow of the phenomena of migration being recog- 

 nised in their original simplicity. 



Temminck is, I believe, the only one of the older ornithologists 

 who touches upon this question. He only states, however, that 

 ' the young birds migrate apart from the old ones,' without entering 

 fai'ther into the subject {Manuel d'Ornithologie, iii. p. xliii.). 



Palmen in his comprehensive work, The Migration-Routes of 



