6 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



before migration began. Nay, more, it may have 

 been an inherited faculty from semi-reptilian an- 

 cestors now almost become obsolete. The supreme 

 disdain of modern naturalists, almost without 

 exception, for avian hibernation, and the con- 

 temptuous way in which they pass the matter by as 

 too utterly absurd for serious notice or refutation, 

 is much to be regretted. No careful student, 

 anxious for truth at any cost, can afford entirely to 

 ignore the mass of evidence accumulated by our 

 forefathers in support of the hibernation of birds ; 

 and it seems to the present writer most unwise and 

 most unscientific to consign all this confirmatory 

 material, much of it of the most positive and 

 conclusive kind, to the limbo which contains such 

 absolutely proved fables as the tree-grown Bernicle 

 Goose, the Phoenix, and the Griffon. To many 

 naturalists it may therefore seem undignified to 

 discuss such a subject in sober earnest at all in the 

 present year of grace, and in the highest degree 

 unorthodox to seek to resuscitate a theory so 

 seemingly marvellous, so wildly improbable, as the 

 seasonal torpidity, or periodical decline of vital 

 activity, in certain members of the class Aves ! 



It is difiicult to say how long ago hibernation 

 was first attributed to birds, but it is probably 

 a very ancient assertion, inasmuch that it is alluded 

 to by Aristotle as an opinion prevailing in some 

 countries, and one Glaus Magnus, a northern 

 naturalist, strongly asserted the subaqueous hiber- 

 nation of Swallows; there is evidence that this 



