1-'-. 



HIGNONXTTB 



MIGRATION OF ANIMALS 



Thiers signed tlic famous protest nt the journali-t 

 on July i~>. ls.m Alter the revolution <if 1830 lie 

 became Keeper of the Archives at the Foreign 

 Ollicc. hut lo-t this in IMS. In 1*33 he went mi a 

 confidential mission to Spain, ami used the <>II|MII-. 

 (unity t<> explore the famous Simancas Archived. 

 Khvted to (In- Academy of Moral Sciences at its 

 foundation in Kt'J. In-' succeeded C.vmte as ite 

 perjietual secretary in 1837, anil was elected to till 

 llaynouard's chair among the I'urty in 1836. He 

 died -lih March ISS4. within three months of 

 Henri Martin. Mignct was tin- lirM great special- 

 i-t iu French history who devoted himself to the 

 complete stmly of particular periods, and in his 

 work he displayed a marvellous mastery of docu- 

 ments. 



Hii works include Kfynriatiant rtlalim A la Succet- 

 lion ffKtpaflne tout Louil XIV. (1830-42); Antonio 

 Pert! et PMippt II. (1848); Vie de FranMin (1848); 

 Hi'toirr d< M'irie Stuart (18M); Charlet Quint, ion 

 A'"lifition. ion Sfjixtr ft ft ifort an Monatt*rc de Ytute 

 (1K54); BM Hittoriqun (1843 and 1S64); and 

 Jticaliti dt Franfou /. rt tie Charlei V. (1875). For a 

 treat projected history of the Reformation, lie is said to 

 have collected hundred* of volumes of inamincnpt corre- 

 i|Hidunce. See Trefort. Align ft and tcint Werke (Buda- 

 pest, 1889); the Life by E. Petit (Paris. 1889); and 

 Jules Simon, Miynft, .Vithclct, Henri Martin (1889). 



Wiunoiirtfr (Reseda odorata), a plant of the 

 natural order Kesedacere, a native of the north of 

 Africa, in universal cultivation on account of the 

 delicious fragrance of its Dowers. Though usually 

 cultivated as an annual, it is really a perennial, 

 and assumes a sub-shrubby character when pro- 

 tected from cold and wet in winter. It is to be 

 seen during summer in almost every garden, and 

 during winter in almost every greenhouse in 

 Itritain : it is often cultivated 'in tlower-]x>ts in 

 apartments, mid no Mower is so common in the 

 lioxes which are placed outeide of windows in 

 towns. Vet it was first introduced into England 

 l>y I,ord Batoman, who brought it from the Royal 

 Garden at Paris in 1752 ; nor hail it then been 

 long known in France. It rapidly became a uni- 

 versal favourite throughout Europe. The French 

 name mignonette, now its popular name every- 

 where, signifies Little Darling. What is called 

 Tree Mignonette is not even a distinct variety, 

 but merely the common kind trained in an erect 

 form, and prevented from early flowering by pinch- 

 ing off the ends of the shoota. Weld (q. V.) belongs 

 to the same genus. 



Migration of Animal*. An animal is 

 usually descrilied as 'migrating' when it shift* 

 its quarters at particular periods of the year. 

 Thin, in the northern hemisphere, takes place in 

 spring and autumn, the directions at these seasons 

 lieing reflectively north and south : in the opposite 

 hemisphere the course taken by the migrants is 

 reversed, while in most warm and temperate 

 regions MrUranm mammals, to escape insects 

 and to obtain fresher vegetation (and following 

 them '.ho predatory carnivora), ascend in summer 



to higher altitude*, dew ling again when the 



snow covers their gra/ing ground. Example* 

 are afforded hv the deer in North America and 

 Scandinavia, tlie alpine hares in Scotland, the 

 Himalayan monkeys, &c. Hut, just as in Hiber- 

 nation (q.v.) there is every gradation Iwtween 

 ordinary sleep and the long-continued dormancy 

 o designated, so it is j~sil,|e to trace numerous 

 tens connecting the ordinary roaming about of an 

 animal in search of food with the persistent flight 

 or march in one definite direction at a date so 

 determinate that it may be reckoned upon to 

 within a few days. There are, however, in addi- 

 tion, migrations of an irregular character, stimu- 

 lated by cause* still imperfectly understood, though 



in the majority of cases the necessity of seeking 

 more abundant food -supplies the jirnninii /nubile 

 of all roaming is at the Ixittom of what seems at 

 first sight a whimsical movement. 



Birds are the most marked migrants. The 

 phenomena exhibited by them in this respect have 

 been sufficiently descrilied in Vol. II. p. 17-. 

 Various species (the robin and the song thrush. 

 for example) which stay in Great Britain during 

 w inter are in various continental countries migrants. 

 Again, all winter there in a drifting over from the 

 mainland to the British shores of s|>eeif> which 

 are not recognised a* birds of passage, this shift- 

 ing of (piarterx, in a manner akin to initiation, 

 except that it is indeterminate as to season, liciiij; 

 probablv due to a lack of food when continental 

 Europe "is covered with snow. This reason may also 

 be assigned for those irregular appearances of the 

 wax-wing and the nutcracker in the British Isles, 

 and for those sudden arrivals from central Asia 

 in Europe, on (o the western limits of Great 

 Britain, of the Pallas sand-grouse, which were the 

 ornithological events of 1850, 1863, and 1888. 



Mammals are less migratory, their movements 

 In'ing restricted by the impossibility of crossing the 

 ocean. The reindeer, however, ill many purls ot the 

 Arctic continent, moves north at the lieginning of 

 summer and south at the approach of winter, and 

 in the Hudson Bay region the Arctic fox the 

 young more especially often retreats southward 

 in October, returning northward in spring, though 

 in Greenland, Spitsbergen, and the Arc-tic regions 

 generally 1-oth animals are winter residents, the 

 fox shifting its quarters very little, and the rein- 

 deer only from one valley deeply covered with snow 

 to another in which the lichens and the withered 

 vegetation can lie reached more easily. The polar 

 and other seals and cctacea make regular migra- 

 tions, the latter following the melting ice-lields, 

 while each species of the former reaches the coast 

 at different dates, though their winter haunts are 

 still problematical. But most northern mammals 

 are hibernators when they cannot find sufficient 

 food-supply during w inter. The irregular migrants 

 arc the most remarkable. Among uiese the Lem- 

 ming (q.v., Myodea Icmmits) is the best known. 

 These animals, at intervals of five, twenty, or even 

 a greater number of years, suddenly start from 

 their borne in Northern Scandinavia, in vast 

 droves, followed by myriads of predatory birds and 

 mammals, and steadily pursue a southward course 

 until they meet the sea. when they boldly plunge 

 in and are often drowned in enormous number-. 

 None ever return. The North American gray 

 squirrel (Sciitrus migratoriits) will often remiiin 

 for years in one district, and then suddenly migiate 

 in millions. These two cases and the lemmings 

 of North America (M. tun/nut n, var. lindxniiiiix) 

 exhibit traits similar to their European cmip'iicis 

 may, like the cone-ponding influx of rats and mice 

 in various districts, of the Hesperomys in Brazil, 

 and of the flying foxes (gigantic bats of the 

 genus I'tcropns) in parts of Australia, be ascribed 

 to the food supplies in a particular area having 

 suddenly tailed or become unequal to the demands 

 upon them ; for it is hard to credit the theory that 

 the southward incursions of the lemmings are 

 stimulated by their instinctive eagerness to reach 

 a long vanished 'Atlantis,' to which, in former 

 days, their ancestors periodically rosoited. anil of 

 the existence of which they possess an inherited 

 though inaccurate remembrance. The American 

 bison was also in the habit of migrating southward 

 and northward after the fashion of the reindeer and 

 Asiatic wild-ass (Arinut Onager), and no doubt 

 for identical reasons. But the irregular migrations 

 of the quagga and the South African antelopes, 

 followed by herds of lions and other carnivora, are, 



