140 PECULIARITIES IN ANIMAL MIGRATION. 



The migration of animals is a surprising propensity, 

 evidently impressed on them for their preservation by 

 their Creator. Each species knows the proper season 

 for departm-e, and the course they should pursue. 

 They understand one another, and assemble for their 

 voyage at some appointed signal unknown to . us. 

 The time, the place, and the order of their passage, 

 differ according to the species; and what is a still 

 more striking proof of design in these emigrations is, 

 the conformity between the vegetation of some plants 

 and the arrival of certain birds of passage. Linnseus 

 observes, that the wood anemone blows in Sweden on 

 the arrival of the swallow, and the marsh marigold 

 when the cuckoo sings. And it is most probable, that 

 it is only from the want of accurate observation that 

 many more such agreements remain unknown; for 

 there may be attractions, or objects of aversion, be- 

 tween plants and animals, that are wholly concealed 

 from us. It is said, that birds of passage follow a 

 leader during the day, who is occasionally changed, 

 and during the night makes a continual cry, that their 

 company may be kept together by the sound. 



Swallows that have been hatched too late to acquire 

 their full strength of pinion, or such as are maimed or 

 diseased, have frequently been found in the hollows of 

 rocks on the sea-coasts, and even under water, in a 

 torpid state, from which warmth has revived them. 



