SOME MODERN VIEWS 15 



which are natives of the northern and temperate regions 

 are mostly migratory ; they are 



Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 

 Their aery caravan ; high over seas 

 Flying, and over lands. — MiLTON. 



Indeed, with comparatively few exceptions, all those 

 inhabiting the northern and far southern areas are 

 migrants. Almost every boy and girl in our own 

 country knows that certain birds — the Swallow, Cuckoo, 

 and Fieldfare, for instance — come to us and leave us at 

 particular times of the year ; while those who have paid 

 closer attention to the bird-life of our islands are aware 

 that the great majority of their feathered population is 

 more or less migratory, coming and going with the 

 change of the seasons. 



Why do these birds migrate ? Why do they leave 

 their native lands and set out on long, arduous, and 

 dangerous pilgrimages to other climes.'* Is the habit of 

 benefit to those that practise it ? These questions may 

 be best answered by asking yet another — namely, " What 

 would become of those myriads of birds which in the 

 summer delight in and breed amidst the solitudes of the 

 arctic countries, when those vast wastes which form 

 their feeding-grounds lie under a pall of snow or are 

 transformed into solid ice .-* What, too, would become 

 of certain birds which similarly make our islands their 

 summer home if they attempted to remain the winter 

 with us ? How could the Swallow and the Cuckoo, and 

 hosts of other birds, whose food consists of insects, and 

 other lowly creatures, support life during the drear 

 months of winter, when such food is scarce or not to be 

 found ? The answer is an obvious one ; they would 

 perish from want of food, and not, as is popularly 



