I0 g ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



scapes of North America could be illuminated in the 

 same manner, we should find the woods and fields 

 swarming with animals where not a living thing is to 

 be seen in the daytime. 



Migratory birds, with few exceptions, travel at night : 

 like terrestrial tourists, they have their favorite routes, 

 their St. Bernard passes and trans-continental highways, 

 and in clear November nights the farmers of Paso del 

 Norte often hear the trumpet-notes of a large flock of 

 wild swans, marshalling their host at an inconsiderable 

 height, to judge from their loud rallying-signals at sight 

 of a conspicuous landmark. Ducks and divers, too, do 

 most of their flitting after dark, and only the champion 

 flyer of all aquatic birds, the wild goose, ventures to 

 travel in the daytime, at an elevation where she can defy 

 the artilleristic machines of her arch-foe. 



There is no doubt that wild birds learn to keep the 

 run of the weekdays and leave their cover only at the 

 sound of the American church-bells, while the ringing 

 of the French and Spanish campaniles sounds a death- 

 knell to the feathered inhabitants of non-sabbatarian 

 Europe. The partridges of our Southern States seem 

 to understand even the meaning of a dinner-bell, since 

 the proprietor of a south-Virginia strawberry plantation 

 told me that their depredations absolutely nonplussed 

 him, till he ascertained that they entered his field during 

 the noontide hour, while the gardeners were taking their 

 siesta. 



