An Essay on the Migration of the Birds of North America 



READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY MARCH 1 5, 1833 

 By John Bachman (Charleston, S. C.) 



r PHE migration of birds has been a subject of great interest to Naturalists 

 Y for ages past. The mysterious appearance and disappearance of many- 

 species at different periods of the year, the circumstance of many of them 

 having never been seen in their migrations, the remote situation to which 

 they retire, even beyond the knowledge of man. The accounts which have 

 from time to time been published of the Swallows having been found in 

 great numbers in caves and hollow trees, in lakes and ponds, of the common 

 Rail or Sora (Rallies carolinus) having been found in the gutters and hol- 

 low banks, the sudden appearance of some birds in the spring after one or 

 two days of warm weather, and their equally sudden disappearance on the 

 first cold day, all have conduced to create many vague and superstitious no- 

 tions in the minds of the uninformed, and have often left the intelligent stu- 

 dent of nature in perplexity and doubt. 



Some have supposed that birds, like some animals, are capable from 

 their internal structure of becoming dormant during the period of cold 

 weather, and hence they lend a willing ear to the accounts published of 

 birds having been found concealed in great numbers in caverns, the hollows 

 of decayed trees, recesses of old buildings and other secluded situations; 

 whilst other have contended that they were preserved under the water be- 

 neath the mud during the winter. 



Amidst such contradictory sentiments on a subject on which the most 

 intelligent Naturalists are not yet agreed, there is a wide field open for in- 

 quiry and observation. The works of God amidst the wonders of nature are 

 always worthy of investigation. If He has given to the birds of the air in. 

 stincts which cannot be equaled by the boasted reason of man; if He has 

 communicated to them some mysterious properties which have hitherto 

 bafned the researches and wisdom of the wise, may it not at least be well for 

 us to record the facts so that although we may not be able to explain these 



24 



