MIGRATION MILAN. 



811 



The drought, in 1819, made the meadows around 

 Altenburg, in Saxony, very dry, and no landrails (in 

 general frequent there) were seen during that season. 

 They had fled to the valley of the Rhine, where the 

 drought had been less. The cold in the winter, also, 

 has much influence on the migration of birds. The 

 winter of 1821 1822 was very mild in Middle 

 Europe, whilst in the north, it was unusually cold, in 

 consequence of which many birds were seen in Ger- 

 many which hardly ever quit the northern regions. 

 Some birds of Bohemia went to Switzerland, and 

 some birds arrived in France which never had been 

 seen there before. The contrary took place during the 

 following winter, when the mercury stood, in Ger- 

 many, much lower than in Sweden. Hunters, and other 

 people living much in the open air, know that certain 

 birds do not migrate, except on the approach of a 

 severe winter. How are these birds led to migrate 

 at such seasons ? The general and easy answer is, 

 by instinct. But what is instinct ? Certainly we 

 cannot mean, by this term, a constant direct interpo- 

 sition of Providence, which drives the birds away 

 because a severe winter is coming on. Instinct, 

 whatever it may be, must be guided by general laws. 

 In what way, however, the birds are led to guard 

 against the severity of the approaching season, 

 whether by a peculiar sensibility to the causes from 

 which its severity will proceed, or in other ways, we 

 know not. In the article Instinct, it has been main- 

 tained, that much of the conduct of animals neces- 

 sarily implies reflection. The vicissitudes of the 

 atmosphere, on the arrival of the migrating time, 

 have also a great influence upon them. Most birds 

 perform their migration during the night ; some 

 species, however, by day. Others stop not either 

 by day or night. To the class which fly by day be- 

 long the birds of prey which obtain their food by day 

 the crow, pie, titmouse, wren, woodpecker, chaf- 

 finch, goldfinch, lark, swallow, and some others. 

 Those which travel by night are the owl, blackbird, 

 &c., and a great number of aquatic birds. Those 

 which stop not, day or night, are the heron, wagtail, 

 yellow-hammer, plover, stork, crane, wild goose, 

 swan. It is very remarkable, that individuals of 

 those species which travel day and night, and which, 

 by some cause, are preventedfrom migrating, remain, 

 during all the time of the migration of their species, 

 awake, and only occupy themselves with taking food. 

 These birds like particularly to travel in bright moon- 

 light. Many birds obtain their food on the wing. 

 The swallows, traversing the sea, catch insects, and 

 fishing birds catch fish, whilst they continue their 

 journey. If the titmouse, wren, woodpecker, and 

 pie rest, for some time, on the branches of trees, they 

 soon resume their flight, after having fed. Those 

 birds which habitually alight on spots where they find 

 nourishment in abundance, never remain longer than 

 two days in succession, if nothing opposes the conti- 

 nuance of their flight. It is a curious fact, that, at 

 these times, many birds utter cries such as they are 

 never heard to make at any other time. Unless 

 obliged by fogs to keep near the ground,birds gener- 

 ally fly very high during their migration. 



Of all migrating birds the cranes are, perhaps, 

 the most remarkable. They seem to be most en- 

 dowed with foresight. They call each other by certain 

 cries, several days before they depart, assemble, and 

 make a great noise, as if consulting; after which they 

 range themselves in two lines, forming an angle, at 

 the vertex of which is the leader, who appears to 

 exercise authority and give orders, for instance, to 

 form a circle in a tempest, or to be watchful if eagles 

 approach, &c. ; he also gives the sign to descend anc 

 take food. If he is tired, he places himself at the 

 end of the line, and the bird next behind him takes 



lis place. They utter, during the night, more pierc 

 ng cries than during the day, and it seems as if 

 >rders and answers were given. Wild geese and 

 ducks travel in a similar way. 



To enable birds to fly with ease, and to continue 

 ong on the wing, they must fly against the wind, in 

 which respect flying is directly opposite to sailing. 

 Sportsmen are acquainted with this fact. If the wind 

 s unfavourable for a time, the migration is retarded, 

 yet never entirely given up, only the birds arrive 

 nuch leaner, fatigued by their efforts. It is astonish- 

 ng how tender birds, as the linnet, for instance, set 

 out from the extremity of Norway, and brave a long 

 journey even over the ocean. The quails, who are 

 leavy in their flight, wait on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, often a long time, for a favourable wind, 

 of which they immediately avail themselves, halting 

 on all the islands. If the wind suddenly changes, 

 many are drowned in the sea. Certain birds, as the 

 moor-hen, rail, &c., being unable to fly for any con- 

 iderable distance, travel partly on foot. Some (as the 

 sjreat auk, or penguin, diver, and guillemot) even 

 migrate by water. Ornithologists have observed 

 that, on the old continent, birds migrate in autumn 

 to the south-west, and in spring toward the north- 

 east ; yet the courses of rivers and chains of moun- 

 tains exercise considerable influence on the direction 

 of their flight. On the new continent, the points of 

 direction are not the same. Captain Parry has satis- 

 fied himself that the birds of Greenland go to the 

 south-east. It is remarkable, also, that the young of 

 certain species do not make the same journey as the 

 old birds ; they go more to the south, so that it is 

 very common to find, in the south of Europe, only 

 the young birds of a certain species, whilst the older 

 ones remain more to the north. In other species the 

 females go farther south. It was formerly believed 

 that the birds of the tropical regions never migrate, 

 and that they never pass the line ; but Humboldt has 

 shown that this is not the case. He observed, more- 

 over, that the migration there took place with the 

 periodical rise of rivers. 



%AN, DUCHY OF; or THE MILANESE; 

 formerly a duchy in the north of Italy ; one of the 

 finest and most fruitful countries in Europe ; bounded 

 on the west by Piedmont and Montferrat, south by 

 the Genoese territory, east by the territories of Parma, 

 Mantua, and Venice, and north by Switzerland. Its 

 extent was 3820 square miles ; principal productions 

 corn, rice, wine, fruits, and silk. The first duke of 

 Milan was Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who was named 

 to that dignity by the emperor Wenceslaus, in 1395. 

 The duchy was composed of a number of the most 

 flourishing cities of Lombardy, in which the Visconti 

 acquired the sovereignty, partly by means of fiefs, 

 and partly through the favour of the citizens and the 

 emperor. The male line of the Visconti became ex- 

 tinct in 1447, and, although the rightful claim then 

 fell to France, Francesco Sforza, the husband of a 

 natural daughter of the last duke, obtained possession 

 of Milan for himself and his family, and they held it 

 until the end of the fifteenth century. Louis XII. 

 and his successor, Francis I., then attempting to en- 

 force their claims, the duchy was alternately in the 

 hands of the French and the Sforzas. Francis I., by 

 the peace of Madrid (1526), was obliged to give up 

 all his Italian possessions ; and, the male line of the 

 Sforzas having become extinct in 1535, Charles V. 

 granted the duchy to his son, Philip II. of Spain ; 

 and it continued to be an appendage to the Spanish 

 crown till the war of the Spanish succession, in 1706, 

 when it came into the possession of Austria. By the 

 peace of Vienna (1735) and the convention of Worms 

 (1745), portions of it were ceded to the king of Sar- 

 dinia. In 1796, the French occupied the country, 



