2 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the 

 time of their coming." There can be little doubt 

 that the migration of birds was equally well 

 observed in even more remote ages, and long before 

 the economy of birds became a subject for scientific 

 investigation, or Ornithology was even in its earliest 

 infancy. For we are informed that the Persians 

 and the Arabs were in the habit of compiling 

 portions of their calendars from the times of arrival 

 and departure of migratory birds, and that the 

 date of their appearance was marked by certain 

 festivals held in honour of the return of a warmer 

 season which these feathered wanderers unerringly 

 proclaimed. 



It is rather a remarkable fact that these earliest 

 observers of migration are in no way responsible 

 for the mystery, superstition, and wild incredible 

 theories that have been interwoven with the 

 periodical movements of birds or propounded in 

 explanation of the phenomenon. With the gradual 

 growth of Ornithology as a science the wildest 

 opinions have been expressed, and the most absurd 

 theories put forward concerning migration. From 

 the very earliest times the migration of birds has 

 been a subject endowed with no ordinary degree 

 of fascination for even the most casual observer 

 of animal life. Birds came and went at their 

 appointed seasons, but their destination was 

 cloaked in the impenetrable mystery that sur- 

 rounded so great a part of the earth's surface in 

 those early days of modern science. Remarkable 



