182 The Migration of Birds 
the two. Many of our birds winter in the Gulf States; 
the swallows, swifts, and bobolinks making more 
extended migrations, varying from Central America 
to Brazil; while some species of snipe and plovers 
make the longest migrations, wintering in southern 
South America and nesting within the arctic 
emele: 
Of the many phases of migration, there is one 
which completely baffles the most adroit students of 
ornithology; that is, how young migrants find their 
way when not accompanied by the old birds. The 
only rational reason that we can assign is that the 
birds have some instinct or faculty which directs 
them. It may be the “homing instinct” reversed, 
for certainly the only homes the young birds know 
are the nesting places. Some believe that the same 
faculty guides the young birds southward that the 
dog or cat uses in finding its way home after being 
transported a considerable distance. Probably the 
young birds in migrating southward have no particular 
spot in view, and a few hundred miles east or west 
would make no difference, while on the northward 
trip it has been proved that they return to the same 
barn, chimney, or tree. Who can tell what guides 
them? it may be the heredity of habit that directs 
the migrants in the long perilous journey. 
