Internal Migration. 83 



air and abundance of food in the well-watered 

 pastures. Meanwhile the Snow-finches, the Ptar- 

 migan, and the birds of prey, who have been 

 living during the winter in the lower slopes and 

 woods of region No. 2, retire upwards to breed 

 in the rocks and snowy crevices of No. 3. We 

 can hardly help believing that with all these 

 wonderful provisions of nature for their change of 

 scene and temperature, these partial migrants of 

 Switzerland must lead a life supremely happy. 

 Man himself and his cattle are partial migrants 

 in the Alps ; and no day is so welcome to the 

 herdsman as that on which the authorities of his 

 commune fix for the first movement of the cows 

 upwards. Bitter indeed has been the disappoint- 

 ment of my old guide, now the happy possessor 

 of two cows, when he has not been able to follow 

 them in their annual migration to the cooler 

 pastures. He could realize the feelings of a 

 caged bird, unable to follow its fellows in seeking 

 the southern lands for which its heart yearns. 



Before leaving this subject I should, perhaps, 

 note that these three regions are not divided from 



each other by any definite- line ; and in respect 



G 2 



