2 2 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



and satisfactorily remarked : ''Perhaps they vc got to.'' She 

 had gathered from my description that there could be nothing 

 agreeable to the birds in the migration, and, logically enough, 

 since one only does that which is disagreeable from necessity, 

 she inferred compulsion. But she set me thinking, and since 

 science attempts no explanation of this appalling Kismet of 

 the birds, I tried to find a reason for it for myself And there 

 can only be this, that it is one of Nature's methods for 

 reducino- numbers. 



At any rate, wherever we turn our eyes in Nature, we 

 find her bringing forth in vast excess of her requirements, 

 and then restoring the equilibrium by the institution of active 

 scourges, or terrific epidemics of suicide. There is no need 

 for the birds to cross seas : to travel twice a year from the 

 Hebrides to Abyssinia. Do they want a warmer climate? 

 do they want a cooler ? They have only to remain where they 

 are and change their altitude. Do they need food ? The 

 idea is preposterous. They leave their various countries at 

 seasons when their food is most abundant ; they are then 

 well fed, and are then strongest for the terrific ordeal before 

 them. Besides, imagine a bird in, say Egypt, coming to 

 England for food ! No, that is the least reasonable of all 

 explanations. And no other is much better. So we have to 

 fall back on the child's reason, " Perhaps they do it because 

 they've got to." 



Twice in every year do they start off, these little 



