130 LECTUEE X. 



This was not a solitary experiment, but has 

 been repeatedly tried during the progress of 

 these insects, and proves the extraordinary fact 

 of the power of communication existing amongst 

 them. 



Quails have a strong migratory instinct, and 

 so regular is their arrival in the island of Malta, 

 that the day of their coming is noticed in the 

 published calendar of the island, as the change 

 of the moon is in ours. A great flight of storks 

 also takes place annually in the Mediterranean, 

 about the same period of the year ; and I was 

 assured by the captain of a ship, who was 

 engaged in making surveys on the coast, that 

 those young birds which were incapable of per- 

 forming so long a flight during the migratory 

 impulse, were conveyed on the backs of their 

 parents to far-distant places, some of them 

 making their way into Persia. 



One of the most curious instances of migration 

 is in the case of the heron. Heronries are not 

 very common in England, and certainly there 

 are not any within some miles of Richmond 

 Park, in Surrey. Yet year after year (for I 

 reside in the neighbourhood) I have seen from 

 fifty to sixty herons assembled on a large open 



