A TOO-SIMPLE SOLUTION 159 



the casual observer. The migrant has not told him 

 what it feels, and he is perhaps accustomed to witness 

 the birds congregating previous to departure; and 

 although he can't quite believe that they call a 

 council, state the certain day, form the phalanx, 

 and so on and so forth, it does yet seem to him that 

 the whole business is managed in a rather well- 

 considered way — that there is, in fact, knowledge 

 and a plan. 



The answer to this anticipated objection will be 

 given later on. My words were not wild and extrava- 

 gant; they express a considered belief, founded not 

 on other men's observations and writings, but solely 

 on personal observation. My ideas were formed long 

 before I ever saw a book on the subject or knew that 

 any such book had been written. The elementary 

 and general works on natural history which I read 

 as a boy and youth contained only the usual state- 

 ments, that birds migrated chiefly to escape the 

 rigours of winter in a warmer climate; that when 

 winter was past they returned to their natal home; 

 and that the increasing scarcity of food was another 

 cause of, and reason for, their departure. 



This was too simple; even as a boy (in southern 

 South America) I saw that the autumnal departure 

 of birds began and continued throughout the most 

 perfect season of the year — in nearly all species from 

 mid-February to the end of May. The most perfect 

 season, that is to say, for the birds, when the passion- 

 ate wooing and fighting spring-season was long past 

 and forgotten; when the labour and anxieties of 



