26 J. E. LITTLEBOY THE MIGEATIOjST OF BERDS. 



ation.* " The observations show, beyond doubt, that all birds 

 are migratory (if we except our common game-birds and perhaps 

 the green woodpecker). Even such comparatively weak- winged 

 birds as the gold- crested wren, common wren, the titmice, the 

 hedge-sparrow, common sparrow, and redbreast, change their locality, 

 crossing the North Sea in large numbers." 



"What is true of our own is equally applicable to the birds of 

 other countries and other continents. Of 110 species recorded by 

 Mr. H. Seebohm, during his three months' tarriance in Northern 

 Siberia, only four or five were found to be resident. Mr. Gumey 

 informs us f that in Egypt, the winter home of several of our 

 English migrants, only 138 species, out of a total of about 316, are 

 resident. 



With ascertained facts, such as these, brought before our notice, 

 it seems almost impossible to avoid the inquiry. How does it 

 happen that an infinite multitude of birds, after passing the 

 winter months in the comfortable retreats of Africa or southern 

 Europe, should rush, with common consent, to northern homes on 

 the approach of spring ; should remain there for only a few months, 

 and then, with equal regularity, should wing their way southward 

 to their winter haunts ? This question was pertinently put by 

 Alexander Pope, nearly two centuries ago, in the following lines : 



" "^Tio bids the stork, Cohimhus-like, explore 

 Heavens not his own and worlds unknown before ? 

 Who calls the council, states the certain day ? 

 Wlio forms the phalanx, and who points the way?" 



Although I cannot agree with a writer in * The Times,' J who con- 

 siders that " the migration of birds is simply a fact, as little 

 accounted for to-day as it could be five thousand years ago," it 

 must, I fear, be admitted that a completely satisfactory answer to 

 Pope's inquiry has not yet been found. 



When discussing the habits of animals, it is customary to account 

 for everything not otherwise explicable, and it is a very easy 

 method of overcoming difficulty, by a reference to instinct. It is 

 impossible to dispose of the important questions connected with 

 the migration of birds in quite so summary a manner. It is, 

 indeed, extremely difficult to define the exact link in the chain of 

 nature at which the promptings of instinct may be supposed to 

 cease and the teachings of hereditary experience to commence. 

 Experience, when handed down through many generations, appears 

 to dcvelope into what is known as instinct. 



The migration of birds has been ably and elaborately discussed 

 by Dr. Weissmann in the pages of the ' Contemporary Review.' § 

 The subject naturally divides itself under two distinct heads ; 

 (a) Migration southward in Autumn ; (b) Migration northward in 



* ' Report Brit. Assoc, for 1881,' p. 193. 

 t ' Rambles of a Naturalist,' p. lli. 

 X Feb. 9th, 1881. 

 § Vol. xxxiv, p. 531 — February, 1879. 



