MIGRATION OF ANIMALS. 



flight, if there be any that do so, may do it in a very short 

 time, perhaps a day, by the help of a favorable wind.' 



Migration is often supposed to be peculiar to the feathered 

 tribes. This is a limited idea, which has originated from in- 

 attention to the economy of nature. Birds migrate with a 

 view to remedy the inconveniences of their present situation, 

 and to acquire a more commodious station with regard to 

 food, temperature, generation, and shelter. From similar 

 motives, men, sometimes in amazing multitudes, have migra- 

 ted from north to south, displaced the native inhabitants, and 

 fixed establishments in more comfortable climates than those 

 which they had relinquished. These, in their turn, have 

 fallen victims to fresh and barbarous emigrants. Among the 

 inhabitants of the more northern nations, as Norway, Sweden, 

 Scotland, &/c., notwithstanding a very strong attachment to 

 their native countries, there seems to be a natural or instinc- 

 tive propensity to migrate. Poverty, the rigor of the climate, 

 curiosity, ambition, the false representations of interested 

 individuals, the oppression of feudal barons, and similar cir- 

 cumstances, have given rise to great emigrations of the human 

 species. But it is worthy of remark, that the emigrations 

 from south to north, except from the love of conquest in am- 

 bitious nations, are so rare, that the instinct seems hardly to 

 exist in those more fortunate climates. Curiosity is a general 

 instinctive principle, which operates strongly in the youthful 

 periods of life, and stimulates every man to visit places that 

 are distant from his ordinary residence. This innate desire 

 is influenced by the relations of travellers, and by many other 

 incentives of a more interested kind. Without the principle 

 of migration, mankind, it is probable, would never have been 

 so universally diffused over the surface of the earth. It is 

 counterbalanced, however, by attachment to those countries 

 which gave us birth a principle still more powerful and effi- 

 cient. Love of our native country is so strong, that, after 

 gratifying the migrating principle, almost every man feels a 

 unging desire to return. 



Savages, as long as their store of food remains unexhaust- 

 ed, continue in a listless, inactive state. They exhaust many 

 days sitting in perfect indolence, and seem not to be prompted 

 by any motives of curiosity. They have not a conception 

 of a man's, walking either for amusement or exercise. But 

 when their provisions begin to fail, an astonishing reverse 

 takes place. They then rouse as from a profound sleep. In 

 quest of wild beasts, birds, and fishes, they migrate to im- 



