CHAPTER II 



SOME MODERN VIEWS ^ 



We have seen that one hundred years ago our naturalist 

 great-grandfathers M^ere gravely discussing whether 

 Swallows and other migratory birds hibernated, or 

 whether they passed the winter submerged at the 

 bottom of lakes and rivers. To-day it is possible to 

 give reasonable explanations for much that was formerly 

 regarded as mysterious ; but there remain problems 

 associated with these remarkable pilgrimages which 

 perplex the modern man of science as they did the 

 prophet and philosopher of old. 



What Birds are Migratory, and Why. — Although 

 the vast majority of birds possess unsurpassed means of 

 locomotion through their remarkable powers of flight, 

 yet by no means all, nor even the majority of the known 

 species (some 13,000 in number), are migratory. Hence 

 the question arises : What Birds are Migrants, and 

 Why ? Those who have studied the ways of bird-life 

 the world over, are aware that the feathered denizens of 

 the tropics are a stay-at-home throng ; while the birds 



' This chapter is not offered as a contribution to the student's knowledge 

 of the subject. It is written in the interests of readers who may not be 

 familiar with the various phases of the phenomenon, as an introduction 

 to the special studies which follow. 



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