OF SELBORNE. 65 



I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though 

 most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some 

 do stay behind and hide with us during the winter. 



As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come 



family. But this is not all: as soon as the young of many species feed 

 themselves, they begin to fight with each other, though perfectly friendly 

 to birds of any other species in the same cage ; and if they do quarrel with 

 others, they do so more with those of cognate species. ^This appears to 

 be a natural impulse given to them in order to effect th*e dispersion of 

 their kind ; it cannot be the effect of imitation. 



The next impulse that shows itself in young birds is at the season of 

 passage, and I can say, positively, that the desire of migration at the 

 usual periods, is as strong in those which have never been out of their 

 native country, and have been brought up in a cage, as in the old birds 

 that have made the passage. This uneasiness lasts nearly a month, both 

 in the autumn and spring. I have observed, at these periods, that they 

 usually go to roost quietly, but, upon a light being brought into the room 

 after they have been asleep, the bustle commences, and it is very difficult 

 to get them to settle on the perch again. The anxiety is always accom- 

 panied with a looking upwards, and bending the neck quite back, with 

 an aspiring motion of the body, as if the bird wished to soar. At these 

 times, if their perches are near the top of the cage, they bruise their heads 

 against it. It appears from this, as if the rise of the moon were the 

 summons for departure ; and the upward flight is probably necessary at 

 starting, to get above all impediments. It has been often observed that 

 woodcocks come over to us on moonlight nights. From these circum- 

 stances it is evident that birds do not migrate because their food fails 

 them. If it be said that the diminution or increase of temperature is 

 the channel through which they are warned of the necessity to depart, it 

 does not appear that they are distressed by those changes, for they settle 

 very well again as soon as the days of migration are passed, although the 

 alteration of temperature is daily increasing. Indeed the vernal change, 

 instead of creating a wish to depart, in the chilly species, should rather 

 tend to reconcile them to confinement. It cannot therefore be truly 

 averred that their desire of migration is occasioned by the pressure of 

 any inconvenience. 



The result of these observations is, that there are certain impulses 

 given to birds, independent of their early imitative propensities, which 

 seem to proceed directly from the Almighty power that governs the 

 universe. The craniologist may, perhaps, expect to find such impulses 

 modified by the various conformation of their sculls ; but if it were 

 admitted that a particular shape of the head might induce a disposition 

 to migrate, what, but the agency of a higher intelligence, could impel 

 the young bird, reared in a cage by the hand of man, with a pan full 

 of food beside a comfortable fire, to travel north or south. The more this 

 subject is investigated, the more clearly, I believe, the direct agency of 

 God will be discovered. VV. H. 



