VIEWS ON MIGRATION. 19 



by no means a usual or a universal one, and very- 

 likely in most if not all cases has arisen not from 

 choice, but from inability or strong disinclination to 

 migrate at the customary period. Hibernation, so 

 far as we can learn, only applies to a few indi- 

 viduals, and no species of bird has yet been dis- 

 covered in which the practice is universal, if we 

 except conditionally the Swift (C. pelagica)^ to which 

 allusion has already been made. As for myself, I 

 neither accept nor deny it, having personally seen 

 nothing to refute or confirm it, although fully be- 

 lieving it possible, considering that such an attitude 

 is the most scientific position to assume until the 

 subject has been more fully investigated, even at 

 the risk of being " handled without gloves " by 

 some mud and torpor despising bruiser critic for 

 my heresy ! 



Little if any less marvellous was that mysterious 

 power ascribed to birds which enabled them to per- 

 form their journeys to and fro between continent 

 and continent with such wonderful skill. Even at 

 the present day there are many naturaUsts who 

 implicitly believe in this miraculous power, and as 

 a popular opinion it still prevails supreme. Birds 

 are said to be endowed with the superhuman faculty 

 of finding their way across the sea to their winter 

 quarters; or setting off as each migration time 

 returns for a flight of many thousands of miles with 

 nothing but their inborn perception or bfind in- 

 stinctive impulse to guide them on the way. In 

 short, birds at the present day are still popularly 



