MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



far as we are acquainted with it, has made in every 

 instance provision for a supply of. fitting ali- 

 ment. In many instances, where the removal of 

 station could not be conveniently accomplished, 

 instinct has been given the parent to provide the 

 fitting aliment for its new-born young. Thus in- 

 sects, in some cases, store their cells with food ready 

 for the animation of their progeny ; in others, place 

 their eggs in such situations as will afford it when 

 they are hatched. The mammalia, at least the 

 quadrupeds belonging to this class, which could least 

 conveniently move their station, have supplies given 

 them of a milky secretion for this purpose. Birds 

 have nothing of this nature, and make no provision 

 for their young ; but they, of all creatures except 

 fishes, can seek what may be required in distant 

 stations with most facility. A sufficiency of food for 

 the adult parent may be found in every climate, yet 

 the aliment necessary for its offspring may not. 

 Countries and even counties produce insects that 

 differ, if not in species, at least in numbers ; and 

 many young birds we cannot succeed in rearing, or 

 do it very partially, by reason of our ignorance 

 of the requisite food. Every one, who has made 

 the attempt, well knows the various expedients he 

 has resorted to, of boiled meats, bruised seeds, hard 

 eggs, boiled rice, and twenty other substances, that 

 nature never presents, in order to find a diet that 

 will nourish them ; but Mr. Montague's failure in 

 being able to raise the young of the cirl bunting *, 

 * Linnaean Transactions, vol. vii. 



