NATURE IN MOTIOX. 77 



to fly around a few times in large circles, and then, in a 

 straight line, with marvellous swiftness, directly to their 

 home ! They cannot see it, for the roundness of the globe 

 would prevent that ; no other sense can possibly come to 

 their aid, and yet they never fail to reach the place from 

 which they were taken ! 



Thus birds travel from land to land all over the earth; 

 some sailing high in the air, passing without astonishment 

 over populous cities, disdaining fertile valleys and plains 

 covered with rich grain, bent with fixed purpose upon the 

 way to their last year's home ; others, like the swallow, 

 gladdening both Europe and Africa, and, at the appointed 

 time, leaving their nest to seek a warmer climate, as the 

 soul is anxious to leave this earthly home to seek a 

 better world above. The tender nightingale travels, both 

 sexes together, from north to south ; but in early spring 

 the females leave several weeks earlier, and wing their 

 way from Egypt and Syria, alone, to northern regions. 

 Of finches, the females only migrate, the males remain 

 behind, and being thus widowers during the long winter, 

 have, from the French, received the name of celilataires. 

 Not inaptly has, therefore, the question been asked, whether 

 the females of birds are not, perhaps, more sensitive to 

 the magnetic current that whirls around our globe, than 

 the males ? 



The Mammalia do not roam and rove so much as the 

 lighter birds and favored fishes; they are generally bound 

 to certain localities, and at all events chained to the soil. 

 Still we find among them also travellers, now driven forth 

 by hunger, and now by an overwhelming number of beasts 



