How to Attract the Birds 



through the same strong, animating desires, their 

 powers differing only in degree, not in kind. Nat- 

 urally, self-preservation and the favourable perpetu- 

 ation of the species are fundamental. 



In tropical America, where vegetation is prodigal 

 of bloom and insect life fairly teems, the ruby- 

 throat finds himself among a host of rivals for every 

 drop of nectar secreted in the flowers and for every 

 minute insect his tongue craves. But the competi- 

 tion for food, however keen, is no stronger than 

 every creature requires to keep its faculties thor- 

 oughly alive. Presently even the luxuriant tropical 

 vegetation takes a rest ; insect life becomes dormant ; 

 there is not food enough for all, and hunger, the 

 sharpest of spurs, begins to prick. How did the 

 ruby-throat learn of our summer at the North, and 

 that by following the course of the * sun he might 

 live in perpetual abundance ? Doubtless his ances- 

 tors for ages back wan- 

 dered farther and farther 

 northward year by year 

 in search of food, find- 

 ing encouragement all 

 the way; and through 

 what scientists call the 

 instinct of orientation, 

 that is, the law o*f re- 

 versed direction, traced 

 their way back to the tropics even from Labrador. 

 Stirred by the same impulse, intelligent merchants, 

 closely pressed by competition in the great centres of 

 trade at home, migrate to China or the Philippines, 

 where they may have the whole field to themselves. 



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