JANUARY. 47 



MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



The Stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times ; and the 

 Crane, and the Turtle, and the Swallow, observe the time of their 

 coming. 



JEREMIAH viii. 7. 



No living creatures which enliven our landscape 

 by their presence, excite a stronger sympathy in the 

 lovers of nature, than migratory birds. The full 

 charm of change and variety is theirs. They make 

 themselves felt by their occasional absence; and 

 besides this, they interest the imagination by that 

 peculiar instinct which is to them chart and com- 

 pass, directing their flight over continents and oceans 

 to that one small spot in the great world where 

 Nature has prepared for their reception ; which is 

 pilot and captain, warning them away, calling them 

 back, and conducting them safely on their passage ; 

 that degree of mystery, which yet hangs over their 

 motions, notwithstanding the anxious perseverance 

 with which naturalists have investigated the subject; 

 and all the lively and beautiful associations of their 

 cries, and forms, and habits, and resorts. When we 

 think, for a moment, that the swallows, martins, and 

 swifts, which sport in our summer skies, and become 

 cohabitants of our houses, will presently be dwelling 

 in the heart of regions which we long, in vain, to 

 know, and whither our travellers toil, in vain, to 

 penetrate, that they will anon affix their nests to 

 the Chinese pagoda, the Indian temple, or, beneath 



