MIGRATION. 171 



wanderings ? Are they not much more likely to perish of 

 cold or hunger, or to furnish some of the many recorded cases 

 of exceptional wintering or other unusual occurrence ? As far 

 as I have seen, accidental visitors to Massachusetts, almost 

 without exception, are young birds, and the majority also are 

 taken very late in autumn facts of obvious significance in 

 this connection." 



There is one thing connected with migration that as Amer- 

 icans we cannot pass by without mention. Mr. Frank M. 

 Chapman has shown us very plainly that without the help of 

 the birds, Columbus would not have discovered America. All 

 the historians tell us how he was cheered by the sight of land- 

 birds " that came singing in the morning and flew away again 

 in the evening." For more than three weeks before they 

 sighted land they were thus visited by land-birds; " some of 

 them, such as sing in the fields, came flying about the ships, 

 and these continued toward the southwest, and others were 

 heard, also, flying by night." A week before they came to 

 land, Columbus, persuaded that the birds knew whither they 

 were going, turned his course also to the southwest, taking 

 them as his pilots. And just as he predicted, they did lead 

 him to land two hundred and fifteen miles, according to the 

 historian Fiske, nearer than the coast of Florida for which he 

 had been steering. That he could ever have held his muti- 

 nous sailors in check long enough to cross so great a -distance 

 is hardly possible. He was well guided and was happy in 

 trusting his heaven-sent pilots. 



But we do not yet understand how almost by miracle it was 

 that he fell in with these flights of birds. Mr. Chapman was 

 the first to point out to us the real significance of the event. 

 The Bermuda Islands are one of the " stations " on the way of 

 the migrating armies, and the Bahamas, where Columbus 



