DISPERSAL AND MIGRATIONS 159 



absurd belief attributed to migratory birds was 

 their presumed power to find their way from 

 one country to another without experience or 

 guidance. Young birds were believed to be 

 hatched with an instinctive knowledge, not only 

 of when to migrate, but how, quite irrespective 

 of their more experienced parents. It is some- 

 what remarkable that even at the present day 

 there are naturalists who believe in this mys- 

 terious faculty, and stubbornly assert in proof of 

 it that the young birds migrate before their 

 parents in many cases. This would certainly 

 be very remarkable if it were true, but it is not, 

 as we shall learn later on. Many erroneous 

 opinions also still prevail concerning the speed 

 at which birds migrate, the infallibility of the 

 faculty of migration in birds, and the cause of 

 the habit ; but these are questions that we may 

 more aptly discuss in later pages. 



In the first place, we may begin by saying that 

 the habit of migration is by no means a universal 

 one amongst all the individuals of many migra- 

 tory species. The Robin, for instance, is practi- 

 cally a resident species in England, but those 

 individuals that breed in Sweden and other 

 northern lands are migratory, and travel even as 

 far as Africa to winter. The Goldcrest is also a 



