92 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



starvation, an instinct to travel is roused by the 

 cravings of an empty stomach. I cannot incline 

 to a view that makes of the bird merely a ma- 

 chine. There is one feature of the year limited 

 hereabouts to the closing days of April and the 

 beginning of May, the return of migratory 

 birds. It is unquestionable that, to a certain 

 extent, we have the same individuals return 

 year after year. There is no confusion when 

 they arrive ; no restless wandering to and fro ; 

 no crowding, as when emigrants are herded on 

 the steamer's wharf. The wrens go to their 

 boxes, the rosebreasts to the orchard, the oriole 

 to the elm, the indigo-bird to the shrubbery, the 

 swifts to the chimney, the peewee to its nesting- 

 site under the bridge. There is no confusion, 

 but orderly return to the routine of a year ago. 

 This immediate distribution, each bird to its 

 particular haunt of the preceding year, could 

 scarcely come about if there was, on the part 

 of the birds, a total ignorance of the locality ; 

 nor is there any delay in finding materials for 

 nest-building, but this, of course, is not so 

 strange, but there is some significance in the 

 fact that when material was provided in a pre- 



