WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



are first to respond and start off, because they are 

 free of care ; and they keep well in advance, because 

 strong of wing. It is often ten days or a fortnight 

 after these jolly old fellows appear before the bulk 

 of the species they represent passes through our 

 fields, and these are mainly females and young 

 — family or neighborhood parties that have kept 

 in company; and the last that are seen are al- 

 most invariably nestlings of the past season. There 

 is, then, no mystery as to the young; they are 

 guided by their elders or else they are lost. 



But how do the elders find their way? A full 

 answer to that question might take us back to the 

 beginning of things, and then not be satisfactory; 

 but we need not attempt so much. Let us say 

 simply that they have been taught the route and 

 remember it. If you care to believe that long in- 

 heritance has given them a special aptness towards 

 geography, I shall not object ; and this may amount 

 almost to a faculty in some cases, as those of sea- 

 crossing species. Such cases are not readily ex- 

 plained; nor is the ability of the human natives 

 of the South African veldt or the American forests 

 to strike a straight course to camp through an 

 unmarked wilderness. Nevertheless, 1 do not be- 

 lieve that birds have any special or peculiar ''sense 



no 



