no sustained flights. He seems to move 

 southward by easy stages, feeding as he 

 goes; and so the new-comers would meet 

 the birds that lately occupied the spot on 

 the feeding-grounds, if indeed they met them 

 at all, and from there would come with them 

 at daylight to the resting-places they had 

 selected. But how do the new-comers, who 

 come by night, learn that the favored spots 

 are already engaged by day, or that some 

 of the birds that occupied them yesterday 

 are now dead and their places vacant? 



The only possible explanation is either 

 to say that it is a matter of chance 

 which is no explanation at all, and fool- 

 ish also; for chance, if indeed there be 

 any such blind unreasonable thing in a 

 reasonable world, does not repeat itself 

 regularly or to say frankly that there 

 is some definite understanding 

 and communication among the birds 

 as they flit to and fro in the night; 

 which is probably true, but obviously 

 impossible to prove with our present 

 limited knowledge. 



