PLEASANT OUTINGS 277 



regretted that I did not spend a week in rambling 

 over it and making excursions to the engirdling ridges 

 and peaks. A few suggestive questions arise relative 

 to the migratory habits of the feathered tenants of a 

 mountain park like this, for most of those that have 

 been named are only summer residents. How do 

 they reach this immured Eden at the time of the spring 

 migration ? One may conjecture and speculate, but 

 one cannot be absolutely sure of the precise course of 

 their annual pilgrimage to their summer Mecca. Of 

 course, they come up from the plains, where the spring 

 arrives much earlier than it does in the higher altitudes. 

 Our nomads may ascend by easy stages along the few 

 canons and valleys leading up from the plains to this 

 mountain-girt plateau ; or else, rising high in air at 

 eventide for most birds perform their migrations at 

 night they may fly over the passes and mountain 

 tops, and at dawn descend to the park. 



Neither of these hypotheses is free from objection, 

 for, on the one hand, it is not likely that birds, which 

 cannot see in the dark, would take the risk of dashing 

 their brains out against the cliffs and crags of the canons 

 by following them at night ; yet they may depart from 

 their usual habit of nocturnal migration, and make the 

 journey up the gorges and vales by day. On the other 

 hand, the nights are so cold in the elevated regions 

 that the little travellers' lives might be jeopardized by 



