THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



^' CHAPTER I. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN VIEWS ON MIGRATION. 



Ancient Writers on Migration — Their Clear Ideas on the 

 Subject — Migration to the Moon — Old Observers of 

 Migration — Mystery surrounding Migration — Transforma- 

 tion — Hibernation — The Theory still believed in — Evidence 

 for and against — The Theory of Blind Instinct — Its Impos- 

 sibility — The Simplicity of Migration — Not a Universal 

 Habit — Instances Confirming this — Results of Lapsed 

 Migrations — The Law of Lapsed Migrations — Necessity of 

 Migration in Autumn — Love of Home — Impulse to Migrate 

 Hereditary — Antiquity of Migration — Its Ancient Origin — 

 Necessity for seeking the Cause of Migration in Past Ages. 



Six hundred years before the Christian Era, the 

 arrival and departure of migratory birds had 

 undoubtedly arrested the attention of mankind, and 

 the comings and goings of certain species specially 

 remarkable for their periodical flights then as now, 

 were the subject of allusion by the Divine writers 

 of the Holy Scriptures. In simple yet eloquent 

 language the Migration of birds is thus commented 

 upon by the prophet Jeremiah : " Yea, the Stork in 

 the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the 



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