184 
On Wligrants,* 
_TJ\HE migration of birds has always been a favourite theme 
of ornithologists, anda few notes on this subject from a 
member of our Society would appear to be of a sufficiently interest- 
ing nature to engage the attention of all who are to any 
extent gratified with the study of Natural History, and with 
the reflections which must necessarily follow the pursuit of this 
study in all the varied forms which are everywhere presented 
before them. It can, indeed, scarcely be conceived that anyone, 
however deficient in education or intelligence, can fail to have 
wondered at and speculated on the character and nature of that 
mysterious knowledge or power, which, inherent in all animal 
life to a greater or lesser extent, supplies the want of the gift 
of reason and indeed would seem to be in many respects its 
superior, since the faculty of reason possessed by man would 
fail to serve the ends and purposes which are worked out by 
what is generally regarded as an inferior faculty. In no respect, 
probably, does the wonderful power of Instinct develope itself to 
us in a more remarkable or striking manner, than in the 
migration of birds. This subject has always been a source of 
wonder and delight to all observers of natural objects. How often 
does it crop up in the delightful letters of Gilbert White! 
How much did this great student of nature watch the appearance 
and departure of our summer and winter visitants, and how much 
puzzled was he at times to account for the long and arduous 
journeys made by them, and for the powers which some of our 
smaller birds possessed to sustain them in their long and rapid 
flights to and from the British Isles! The regularity and precision — 
which attend their migration, not less than that of the seasons of 
the year, suggest an endless train of thoughts and reflections 
on the wonderful power which impels them in their flight— 
* Read -before the Society at the Third Mecting (Jan. 7, 1868) of the 
Third Winter Session, 1867-68. 
