VIEWS ON MIGRATION. 27 



into play — powers, be it remarked, far more acute 

 than any possessed by human intelHgence, as the 

 great journey progresses ; and thus aided the won- 

 drous flight is taken mile after mile along the old 

 familiar way until the end of that long journey is 

 reached. We shall return to this particular portion 

 of the subject, and treat it more elaborately later on. 

 The antiquity of migration is profound. It is a 

 habit connecting the present day with the immea- 

 surable ages of the past, more ancient probably than 

 any other, save that of reproduction — a habit that 

 has been possessed from the very earliest infancy of 

 Avian Life, maybe; handed down unchanged from 

 a past so remote that the mind of man fails utterly to 

 grasp its mighty measure. So soon as Birds, beings 

 capable of flight, were evolved from their semi- 

 reptilian ancestors, and circumstances arose which 

 caused a change of habitat, the Migration of birds 

 may be said to have begun, and to have continued 

 from that remote past more or less intermittingly 

 until the present day. The key therefore to the 

 Habit of Migration must be sought in past ages, 

 and as the subject is necessarily an important and 

 an extensive one, a chapter must be set apart for its 

 discussion. 



