286 



Travelling Power of Animals. 



Vol. VIII. 



Travelling Power of Animals. 



Some animals, it is well known, have a 

 remarkable power of finding their way from 

 one place to another, far distant, and even 

 hit upon some particular spot which they 

 had formerly known, or to which they have 

 an attachment, or which they consider as 

 their home. It is a power which we cannot 

 but wonder at, seeing- that man, in his civil- 

 ized state, has not the least trace of it in his 

 mental constitution. 



Amongst the insect tribes, the bee is re- 

 markable for the certainty with which it 

 will return, after a long day's excursion, to 

 the particular hive to which it belongs. 

 This it docs not only in cultivated countries, 

 but even in the forest wilds of America, 

 where no sort of special object can serve to 

 guide its path. But, indeed no such aid 

 could be of service to the bee in its journeys, 

 for its powers of vision are extremely defec- 

 tive. The same little creature which will 

 make its way to the hive over extensive 

 countries, will, when it arrives there, stum 

 ble and experience a difficulty in entering, 

 if the aperture for admission has been in 

 the least changed. This seems itself,' suffi- 

 cient evidence that the journeying power 

 of animals does not depend, to any extent, 

 on the eyesight. 



All around the globe, there is a seasonal 

 migration of a considerable number of the 

 feathered tribes, between the equatorial and 

 temperate, and the temperate and arctic re- 

 gions, in obedience, apparently, to the ne- 

 cessities of these animals with regard to 

 food and temperature. The case with which 

 we are most familiar in this country, is that 

 of certain families of the field birds, which 

 dwell with us during the breeding season in 

 spring, but flit to milder climes in order to 

 spend the remainder of the year. The 

 swallow, martin, nightingale, cuckoo, red- 

 start, blackcap, are amongst those which 

 have this habit. The phenomenon was 

 doubted till very lately. The popular no 

 tion was, that these birds spent the winter 

 in a dormant state in caverns and holes of 

 the earth, for which there was perhaps some 

 countenance, in the occasional finding of a 

 solitary bird so entranced. 



We find Dr. Johnson unhesitatingly af- 

 firming to Boswell, that the swallows sleep 

 in winter: it was the belief of Pennant and 

 Gilbert White. Now it is fully ascertained 

 that these birds spend the greater part of 

 their lives in mild climates, as Greece and 

 the north of Africa. About February or 

 March, they wing their way to the tempe- 

 rate regions, between the fortieth and sixti- 

 eth parallels, for the purpose of breeding. 



Why, it may be asked, should migratory 

 birds not breed in the countries where they 

 themselves spend the greater number of 

 their days ? The most plausible reason has 

 been suggested by Mr. Knapp, in his beauti- 

 ful book, " The Journal of a Naturalist :" — 

 the necessity of a peculiarly varied food for 

 the young, such as only temperate climates 

 can supply. The impulse to migration is 

 given by the organic changes in the animals, 

 which lead to their breeding, and which are 

 also the immediate causes of the vernal sing- 

 ing of birds. Tlie male birds go first north- 

 ward, probably from their first experiencing 

 this peculiar impulse. On their arriving at 

 the place of their destination, they express 

 by their notes, a fond impatience for the ar- 

 rival of the other sex, which soon after takes 

 place. Should the winter be unusually pro- 

 tracted, the birds return to a warmer lati- 

 tude, and do not reappear till good weather 

 has set in. 



There are so many instances on record of 

 particular birds returning to the exact spot 

 where they built their nest formerly, that 

 the fact cannot be doubted. Families re- 

 siding in the country houses, are familiar 

 with examples of certain recognisable swal- 

 lows coming year after year, for so many as 

 ten or twelve, to rebuild their nests in the 

 angle of a particular window. As an ex- 

 ample of this class of bird anecdotes — " Many 

 years ago, a garret window in my house was 

 accidentally left open, and a pair of rustic 

 swallows built their fretted nest among the 

 rafters, at which I was much pleased ; and 

 when they had hatched and reared their 

 young, both their parents finding they v.'ere 

 favourites, continued to play about the room 

 all summer, and always roosted in it at night* 

 Before they departed, a thought struck me 

 to play them an innocent trick. One night 

 I shut the window sash, and took them all 

 in an angler's landing-net, and fastened 

 round their necks, without hurting them in 

 the least, rings made of the very fine wire 

 that laps the lower strings of a violincello. 

 At this they took no offence, but played 

 about till their departure. At their ap- 

 pointed period they vanished with their 

 friends. The following spring the window 

 was carefully set open for their admission, 

 and they came accordingly, 'after the daffo- 

 dils had taken the winds of March with 

 beauty;' and to my great delight four had 

 rings. One pair reoccupied the old nesf, 

 and another pair, or more, built in the 

 room." 



There is an authentic case of a redstart 

 returning for sixteen years to build in the 

 same garden. Birds have ever been known 

 to return in spruig to places where in the 



