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M1EIUS MIGRATION OF ANIMALS. 



have contributed most to this art in Germany, 

 are the two Stacks in Jena, Osiander, in Got- 

 tingen, Siebold in Wurzburg, Wigand, Nagele, 

 !<ut r. Jorg, &c. The course now adopted seems to 

 In- the true one, viz. by the cultivation of all the 

 hraiu ht-> of knowledge connected with this depart- 

 ment, to determine the cases in which art may and 

 i>iiht to be passive, and leave the work to nature, 

 iin.1 those in which nature is insufficient to accomplish 

 the delivery alone, or at least without injury to the 

 mother or child. 



M IKK is. FaANCis,a very celebrated painter of the 

 Dutch school, was the son of a jeweller at Leyden, 

 where he was born in 1635. He was the pupil of 

 VI iet, Gerard Douw, and Van den Tempel, and he 

 is generally considered as the principal scholar of the 

 second. His works consist of portraits, and scenes 

 in common life. He possessed the delicate finish of 

 Gerard Douw, with more taste in his designs ; his 

 colouring, too, is more clear, and his touch more 

 spirited. He usually worked for a ducat an hour; 

 but, through his intemperance, he always remained 

 in poverty. One of his finest productions was the 

 picture of a young lady fainting, a physician attempt- 

 ing to recover her, and an old woman standing by; 

 and for this 3000 florins were vainly offered by the 

 grand duke of Tuscany. An engraving from this 

 painting will be found in the " Republic of Letters," 

 a literary miscellany, published at Glasgow, in 1832. 

 Mierisdiedat Leyden, in 1681. He had two sons, 

 John, the elder, who gave great promise of excel- 

 lence, but died in 1690, at Rome: the younger 

 William Mieris, was the pupil of his father, and 

 adopted his style, in which he showed great talent. 

 He died in 1741. His son, Francis Mieris, the 

 younger, was also a painter, but was not very suc- 

 cessful. He published several works relating to the 

 history of the Low Countries, and the lives of their 

 sovereigns. 



MIGNARD, PIERRE ; a French painter, born at 

 Troyes, in 1610. His father discovering early indi- 

 cations of his talent for painting, placed him, when 

 eleven years old, at Bourges, in the school of Jean 

 Boucher ; and the young artist next studied the 

 works of Primaticcio, Rosso, and Nicolo dell' Abbate, 

 in Fontainbleau. He afterwards became a pupil of 

 the celebrated Vouet, and, in 1636, went to Rome, 

 where he formed himself by the study of the master- 

 pieces of Raphael and Titian. His historical paint- 

 ings and portraits, among which were those of Ur- 

 ban VIII. and Alexander VII., soon gained him 

 reputation ; and he also painted a great number of 

 portraits in Venice. In 1658, Colbert engaged him 

 to return to France in the service of Louis XIV., and 

 Mignard was placed at the head of the academy of 

 St Luke, and, after the death of Lebrun, with 

 whom he was constantly at war, became chief painter 

 to his majesty. At this time, he executed one of the 

 greatest fresco paintings which France possesses 

 the dome of the Val-de-Grace. It represents the 

 region of the blessed : in the centre of a great number 

 of saints, martyrs, prophets, &c., is queen Anne (of 

 Austria) presenting to God the model of the new 

 church. He also adorned the palace of St Cloud with 

 numerous mythological paintings, executed several 

 works at Versailles, and painted portraits, &c. Be- 

 sides the posts already mentioned, the direction of the 

 royal collections of art, of the academy of painting, 

 and of the Gobelin manufactory, was conferred on 

 him. He continued actively engaged in his art until 

 his death, in 1695. In respect to invention and com- 

 position, Mignard is not entitled to rank among pro- 

 found and original geniuses ; yet the grace and 

 loveliness which characterize his works, particularly 

 his Madonnas, the brilliancy and harmony of his col- 



ouring, and the ease of his pencil, atone for many 

 defects. His talent for imitation of other masters 

 was renic'irkable ; he deceived the ablest judges, and, 

 among them, his rival Lebrun, by a Magdalene in 

 the manner of Guido. 



MIGRATION OF ANIMALS. The migration 

 of animals, that is, the travelling of a large number 

 of the same species toward a certain place of destin- 

 ation, or in a certain direction, is one of the most 

 remarkable phenomena in natural history. Migration 

 takes place with quadrupeds, fishes, birds, and in- 

 sects. As to the first, it does not appear that any 

 of them migrate periodically and regularly, like many 

 species of fish and birds, for which a sufficient reason 

 may be found in the almost uninterrupted passage 

 which air and water permit, whilst the land offers 

 many impediments to change of place. Yet some 

 quadrupeds are suddenly seized by the desire 01 

 migration. The lemming rat, which is found in the 

 northern parts of Europe, migrates at regular periods, 

 when a severe winter is approaching, in incredible 

 numbers, and always in a straight line, stopping not 

 for rivers or lakes. Some other quadrupeds, also, 

 occasionally move in large numbers, and for consi- 

 derable distances ; but these expeditions do not take 

 place at regular periods, and seem to be owing to 

 accidental causes. The buffaloes (properly bisons), 

 in the western wilds of North America, and the 

 wild horses sometimes take long journeys in large 

 bodies. Some fishes, also, remove into wanner situa- 

 tions during winter ; thus the salmon leaves the 

 rivers and shores, on the approach of winter, to seek 

 the wanner waters of the deep sea. Other fish do 

 the same. The cod-fish move in great numbers, 

 about the month of May, from the northern seas to- 

 ward Newfoundland. The shoals of herrings which 

 periodically traverse the ocean, are innumerable. 

 The same is the case with the mackerel, pilchard, 

 anchovy, &c. That insects migrate is well known, 

 for instance, locusts, ants, &c., and move, with sur- 

 prising obstinacy, in a given direction. The animals, 

 however, with whose migrations man is most familiar, 

 and which appear to migrate most regularly, are 

 some species of birds. The facts which are known 

 relative to this point are very curious, and yet leave 

 a vast field of interesting observation. Some birds 

 regularly return, after a certain absence, not only to 

 tile same country, but to the same spot where they 

 built their nests before, or where they were bred. 

 Many storks, which become half tame in Germany, 

 have been marked, and found to return regularly to 

 their old nests, built on a wheel, which the peasants 

 of that country, particularly in the north, place, 

 for that purpose, on the corner of the roofs of their 

 houses. The same is related of swallows, and other 

 birds of passage. Other birds do not return to a 

 particular country, but travel, according to circum- 

 stances, from one to another. Among the former are 

 some which remain in the country of their nativity only 

 as long as is necessary to breed and bring up their 

 young ; others are absent but for a very short time. 

 The ioriot remains but three months in the middle 

 regions of Europe, whilst the lark is absent but for a 

 very short time. 



Mr Brehm, a German, has collected many inter- 

 esting facts respecting the birds of passage. Gener- 

 ally speaking, they are determined as to the place 

 where they ouild their nests, by the means of sub- 

 sistence which they find, as, for instance, the gros- 

 beak, goldfinch, pigeons, cranes, landrails, several 

 species of herons, woodcock, geese, ducks. In 1819, 

 the fruit of the pine tree being scarce in the north of 

 Europe, whilst it was very abundant in the central 

 parts, large numbers of the crossbill, which chiefly 

 lives upon this food, were found in the latter regions. 



