CHAPTER XIV 



MIGRATION 



For ages past the mysterious going and coming of 

 birds has excited the notice and wonder of mankind. 

 The familiar proverb <l One Swallow does not make a 

 summer" is quoted by Aristotle. The noisy march of 

 the Trojans is compared by Homer to the clamorous 

 flight of a flock of Cranes migrating southward. 

 " The Trojans marched with clamour and with 

 shouting like unto birds, even as when there goeth up 

 before heaven a clamour of cranes which flee from the 

 coming of winter and sudden rain, and fly with 

 clamour towards the streams of ocean." 1 In a book 

 of still more ancient date, the Book of Job, we read of 

 the southward flight of the Hawk.*- Till comparatively 

 rccent times, however, men were content to let the 

 mystery remain a mystery. Gilbert White of Sel- 

 borne puzzled and puzzled over the problem of 

 migration. He knew that most of the Swallows flew 

 far southward for the winter, but he could not entirely 



1 Iliad, iii. 1. 2, Lang, Leaf, and Myers' translation 



2 Chap, xxxix. 26. 



