MIGRA T1ON. 



immense number of birds wintering in Florida, some regu- 

 larly follow the more easterly parts, while ethers, pursuing 

 a more interior route, trend away to the northwest; so that 

 a number of observers, forming a line from east to west 

 across these lines of migration, would each find, year after 

 year, certain passengers peculiar to his station. The Atlan- 

 tic Coast and the Mississippi Father of Waters would 

 seem to be the main thoroughfares.* Again, the regular 

 route in the autumn for some species is not the same as 

 that of the spring. Some species, and perhaps it may be 

 said the birds in general, return to the same spot for nidifi- 

 cation from year to year. The Barn Swallows return to the 

 old home on the rafter with great demonstrations of joy at 

 each arrival; the Bluebird and the Martin return regularly to 

 their tenement; the Bird of Prey seeks out its old eyrie, and 

 even the song-bird of the forest, which achieves the longest 

 migration, is known to rebuild near its former site. It is 

 said that from year to year " the immortal Naumann knew 

 all his little feathered friends, near his house, by their 

 songs." 



How does each species, or individual, trace its pathway 

 with such marked regularity and certainty? Whoever 

 would account for this, by the bird's-eye view of the main 

 points of landscape which the migrant is supposed to com- 

 mand from its lofty aerial pathway, must attribute to the 

 bird a higher reasoning faculty in combining the general 

 effect of the extended scenery through which it passes than 

 it could seem to possess; and at the same time fails to find 

 the route for the vast numbers moving low, or under cover 

 of the night. Nor do the young always avail themselves of 

 the more experienced; and unless the bird be endowed with 

 an intelligence immeasurably above that of man, would it 



* A careful study of tin- facts in the Old World has rendered it certain that great water- 

 courses, and their adjoining valleys, are the main thoroughfares of migration. 



