STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



CHAPTER I 



SOME ANCIENT AND ANTIQUATED VIEWS 



They try their fluttering wings, and thrust themselves in air, 

 But whether upward to the moon they go, 

 Or dream the winter out in caves below, 

 Or hawk for flies elsewhere, concerns not us to know. 



— Drvden (1631-1700), 



The seasonal movements of birds have attracted the 

 attention and excited the curiosity of mankind for 

 countless ages, and the allusions to them in ancient 

 literature are of a singularly interesting nature. Not 

 only are these references amongst the very earliest con- 

 tributions to the study of natural history, but some of 

 them must rank as the most remarkable to be found 

 in the literature devoted to that or any other subject. 

 It is to be hoped that some day a historian will arise 

 who will gather together the threads and yarns spun 

 by the old writers, and weave them into the engaging 

 narrative which remains to be unfolded to us. Here it 

 is only possible briefly to allude to the vast antiquity of 

 the records, and to the extraordinary views held by 

 some of those who have ventured to wTite on the subject. 

 Long before the Christian era, we find in the Book 

 of Job (xxxix. 26) the words : " Doth the hawk fly by 



I. A 



