90 APRIL. 



consider that, by the lightness of their bodies, 

 and their length and speed of wing, they are, 

 of all birds, the best calculated for migration, 

 how a doubt could have arisen on the subject. 

 But they come, it is said, with great secrecy, 

 and go with great secrecy ! So does the heavy 

 woodcock ;— and yet no one ever doubted of the 

 migration of that plethoric bird, whose usual 

 flight is not many hundred yards. A few are 

 sometimes seen after the rest have departed, 

 on the breaking out of a few fine days ; and a 

 few which, in spring appear first, as suddenly 

 disappear on the return of cold. Can this be 

 any wonder in birds of such velocity? Some 

 however have been found in a dormant state 

 here. This is a fact ; — but a fact only of a few, 

 and of rare occurrence; and proves no more 

 than that, when accident prevents their de- 

 parture, nature has given them the power of 

 so existing. But of all the absurd hypotheses 

 broached on this head, that of their remaining 

 at the bottom of pools and marshes under 

 water, during winter, is the most preposterous. 

 Dissection has proved that they have no organic 

 provision for such a state, and could not live 

 half an hour in submersion ; so that we are 

 obliged to sacrifice our love of the marvellous 

 and mysterious, and to let the poor birds go, as 

 Nature has given them power, to the southern 

 lands of summer. 



