HIBERNATION. 



393 



Migrate. 



rival of this bird. The females do not make their ap- 

 pearance for a week or ten days after. Similar obser- 

 vat ons have been made with respect to the wbeatear 

 :dUa aenamlhr) 



Those birds which feed daring the night may lie ex- 

 pected to ueifeim their migration* during the same in- 

 terval, it being the season of their activity ; while those 

 bird* whkh teed during the day. may be expected to 

 if*g'*'* with the help of light. The migrations of the 

 woodcock and quail confirm this conjecture. The wood- 

 cocks arrive in this country during the night, and hence 

 they are sometime* found in the morning after their ar- 

 rival, in a neighbouring ditch, in too weak a state to 

 enable them to proceed. Poachers are aware that they 

 migrate during the night, and awueUinti kindle ftree 

 on the coast, to which the woodcock*, attracted by tlie 

 light, bend their coarse, and in this manner great num- 

 ber* are annually destroyed. Quails, on the other hand, 

 par ft* m their migration* daring the day, so that the 

 *|xli*aus in the i*Und* of the Mediterranean can use 

 hi* dog and gun. 



It ha* often excited surprise in tlie mind* of some, 

 bow migrating bird* could support themselves so long 

 on wing, so as to uamplisli their journies, and at the 

 i live without food during their voyage. Theee 

 <> deny the exi 



other* to _ 



tfaeone* oa the Mibjoct, to account for the 

 of these bird* during the winter Moth*. 

 bave been Mated, art only 

 altogether if we !< to 

 of the flight of bird*. 



iie rapidity with which hawk and many other 

 bird* occasionally 67, i* probably not lee* than at the 

 iMe OI-OM hundred Md fifty MiU in aa hour. Major 

 ( art wrigbt, OB the ooMt of Lacimd*ii. found, by re- 

 peated obiemtjooe, thet th* me/ht or an ewer duck 

 ( AMU 



help of a favourable breeze, reach the utmost limits of Animals 

 their journey. Many birds, we know, can subsist a w . llicjl 

 lonj time without food ; but there appears to be no ne- ^8"^ 

 eeenty for supposing any such abstinence, since, as O.tr.- "" """V"*" 

 by remarked, every day affords an increase of warmth 

 and a supply of food. Hence we need not perplex our- 

 selves in accounting for the continuance of their flight, 

 or their sustenance in the course of it Such journies 

 would be long indeed for any quadruped, while they 

 are soon performed by the feathered tribes. 



It H often stated as a matter of surprise, how these 

 birds know the precise time of the year at which to ex- 

 ecute their movement*, or the direction in which to 

 migrate : 



Who calk the council, ta:ei the certain day. 

 Who form* the phalanx, and who points the way ? 



But this is merely expressing a surprise, that a kind 

 and watciitul Providence should bestow on the feather- 

 ed creation power* and instinct* suited to their wants, 

 and calculated to supply them. How, we ask, does 

 the curlew, when aouhuJ upon a neighbouring muir 

 during the flowing of the tide, know to return at 

 the first of the ebb, to pick up the accident*! bounty 

 of the waves ? How are the sea fowl, in hazy wea- 

 ther, guided to the sea-girt isle* they inhabit, with 

 food to their young, which they have procured at the 

 dirtance of *bas>y miles r " The inhabitants of St 

 say* Martin, ' take their m*a*ort* from the 

 flight of theee wwb, when the heaven* are not clear, 

 M from a *ure compae* ; ea^erienor .hewing, that every 

 tribe of fowl* bend their course to their respective 

 quarters, though out of sight of the Me. 1 his ap- 

 peared clearly m our gradual advance* : and their mo- 

 tion bean*; compared, did exactly quadrate with our 



I nth,-, 



) wa* at the rate of ninety mile* an 

 hour. Bui an, it i* generally known, that a falcon 

 which belonged to Henry the 'Fourth of France r*e- 

 ped from Fawtainblcau, and in twenty-four hours after. 

 ward* was found at Malta, a distance computed to be 

 no leu than thirteen hundred and fifty mile*; a velocity 

 nearly equal to 6tty-*even Mile* an hoar, (opposing 

 the falcon t have been on wing the whole time. Rot 

 fly by night, and alUwkea the day 



to be at the 



venty-aive 



, hu flight 

 OB boor. Icl,] 



,.., 



tose- voyage, 



of tbeee annual migrations, birds are 

 by storms of contrary wind, and 

 carried far from then* usual course. In such COM*, they 

 tray to unknown countries, er sometimes are found a't 

 sea hi a vary exhausted state, clinging to the rigging of 

 hip*. Such accident*, however, seldom happen, a* 

 these bird*, year after year, arrive in the same country, 

 and even return .to the same spot. The summer b.r.'U 

 of passage return not, it is true, in such numbers as 

 win n they left us ; but, amidst all the dangers of their 

 i* I 



*" 

 thirl 



e. tin- 



,-, tin- t.-nty-T..nr. 



wa* retaken the ma 



it ** ?rcn 



ef bird* to the rate of My 

 ly can they perform their Met 

 And we know, in the caw 

 all other migrating bird*, 

 lofanvirwmd w.ih 



which to perform their fhghu. Thi. brew perhaps 

 aid. them at the rat* of thirty or forty miles an I 

 nay, with throe time* greater rapidity, even hi a mo- 

 derate bee***, if we are to give credit to the 

 of aerial navigators, who seem to 



the motion ef wind* a* in general i 



It ha. been already observed, that many specie* de not 

 * "igiwliun* at once, but reach the end of 

 ' by short and easy Mages. There is little 

 was such ; while those who execute 

 i at one flight, (if there be any that do 

 so,) may in a veiy short tine, paH,a*jj a day, by the 

 not, xi. TAUT ii. 



riod* of mijnwtioa, and the tattmUmiut by which caiuei ot 



'or us to ascertain migratioa. 

 m movements are 

 to be referred. Powerful indeed must be the cause* 

 wasBsil prompt theee animals to forsake the wood* in 

 which they were reared, er the rock* on which they 

 were hatched, and undertake a perilous j.mrt 

 taut countries. They must be intimately connected 

 with the first law* of life, otherwise the movements to 

 which they give birth would not be *o constant mid 

 uniform. The procuring of a supply of fond, a suit- 



e*0B*E aVaBHBLnHajBBrC^ Or at !1IC I ' 



My all the pro, hnate oau*e* which have any < 

 inch migration*. 



If we attend to the foot/ of many of our summer vi- Food. 

 sitants, we may easily perceive, that it can only be 

 procured during those month* in which they remain 

 with IK. Subsiding chiefly on in*ect*> they are com- 

 pelled to *hil\ their ipaiun, and retire to wanner dw 

 SB 



