MIGRATORY INSTINCT OF BIRDS. 315 



heard. He seems to impose upon himself a daily task, which 

 even occupies him during sleep, as he speaks in his dreams. His 

 memory is astonishing. Le Vaillant says that he heard a parrot 

 repeat the Lord's Prayer from beginning to end in the Dutch 

 language ; and M. de la Borde told Buffon he had seen one that 

 was fully able to perform the duty of a ship's chaplain. This 

 intelligent bird is also susceptible of great attachment to his 

 master, and, like the elephant, does not easily forget the insults 

 he has received, and knows how to resent them. 



The stork also has a most wonderful memory, and soon learns 

 to understand the actions and even the language of man. Dr. 

 Schinz, a Swiss naturalist, kept during several years a couple 

 of tame storks, and thus had frequent opportunities of noticing 

 their remarkable intelligence. They knew their names as well 

 as a dog, and on being called, would immediately come to their 

 master. During the season of the cockchafers, they followed 

 him to pick up the beetles he shook down from the trees, and 

 evidently invited him by their gestures to do so. They are 

 very fond of earthworms, and when anyone took a spade in 

 his hand, they immediately understood what was meant, and 

 ran up to him while digging, as if well aware that they had a 

 treat to expect. 



The migratory instinct, although sometimes occurring in 

 other classes of animals, is much more general among the birds, 

 who, thanks to their light wings, possess the enviable privilege 

 of enjoying the delights or avoiding the inclemencies of every 

 climate. They do not wait till the cold becomes intolerable 

 they are not gradually driven away by the increasing severity of 

 the autumnal blasts ; but before necessity makes itself felt, a 

 strange restlessness seizes them, an invincible impulse to wing 

 their flight to distant regions. Then the storks assemble in large 

 flocks, and though usually silent, make a loud clattering noise, 

 as if consulting before the journey they are about to undertake ; 

 when they are actually on the point of leaving, the whole 

 troop becomes silent, and moves at once, generally in the 

 night, to alight in a few days in Egypt or Nubia, on the 

 sunny banks of the abounding Nile. There they enjoy the 

 temperate warmth of a tropical winter ; but when the heat in- 

 creases, their travelling instinct revives, and forces them to 

 return to the northern lowlands, where genial spring awaits 



