SOME ANCI1<:NT and ANTK^ITATED VIEWS 13 



Probably nothing" more remarkable can be found in 

 the romance of natural history than some of these 

 explanations advanced to account for the disappearance of 

 birds in the autumn. No doubt the fact, then unknown, 

 that most birds embark upon their emigrations at night- 

 fall, and that hence their departure is unwitnessed, may 

 be in some measure responsible for the astounding 

 theories propounded to account for what was, not 

 unnaturally, a complete mystery to men who had 

 neither ascertained this habit by observation, nor 

 even surmised it as a possibility ; though it may well 

 be thought strange that, among their many bold 

 guesses, the true solution never emerged as a possible 

 conjecture. 



In looking back over the history of early opinion 

 in relation to the appearance and disappearance of 

 certain birds at certain seasons, it is both interesting 

 and instructive to note that in very early times men's 

 knowledge of the matter seems to have been scanty, but 

 sound as far as it went, and that in later times careless 

 observation, fancifully interpreted, brought forth "a 

 lively principle of error," which led mankind astray for 

 many generations, and induced even Linnaeus and 

 White — two naturalists of the first rank, and living 

 within the period in which the scientific spirit had 

 become powerfully operative — to lend their authority to 

 theories now quite untenable. 



