THE MYSTERY OF MIGRATION 



THE 'sense of locality* awakens more interest when 

 shown by the bird than by the bee, because the 

 former has a mind of an order more human, and 

 more cognisable by our senses. Yet the mystery of 

 migration remains a mystery still ; and this year's 

 arrival of the tens of thousands of spring migrants 

 from Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean has not 

 found us much better informed as to the means 

 which guided them on their way. When the move- 

 ments of birds on migration were first noted 

 and set down, the results were unexpected and be- 

 wildering. Movement, not rest, seemed the general 

 law of their being. The greater number of species 

 were found to pass their lives in travel, though the 

 motive and the routes chosen for their journeys 

 were less accountable as the facts were multiplied. 

 The simple and easy conclusion of the older 

 naturalists as to migration, from the days of Virgil 

 to those of Gilbert White, was that their own 



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