£be Marbler 35 



warmth of covering, enabling- them to migrate with ease and to bear the 

 rigour of the Polar regions. - The water birds are either composed of Ducks, 

 which breeding far North are enabled to reach the cold regions of Norway 

 and Russia and visit the shores of Europe ; or they are of the Gull, Tern 

 and Petrel species which find sustenance everywhere on the bosom of the 

 ocean, and may, therefore, with great ease navigate the widest seas. Still it 

 will be observed that the number of birds that migrate from one Continent 

 to another is very small, and I am under an impression that these migra- 

 tions take place but seldom. Such is also the case with our animals, of 

 which very few are found on the Eastern Continent. Tn fact, our whole 

 kingdom of nature, not even excepting the insects and plants, presents pe- 

 culiarities which well entitle it to the name given it by its first discoverers of 

 " the New World." Whether many of our migratory birds that leave us 

 early in the season may not pass beyond the tropics and retire to latitudes 

 in the Southern hemisphere of the same temperature with that which they 

 left, is a subject that remains for the investigation of future naturalists. Why 

 may they not take advantage of the reversion of the seasons and there rear 

 a second brood. Even admitting that our birds may not migrate to the 

 Southern hemisphere, it is possible that some of the species may breed in 

 two distinct portions of North America. The Stork after it leaves Europe 

 is known to raise another brood in Africa. The purple Martin which is 

 found in our whole country during summer, as far as the 6oth degree of 

 north latitude, is known to breed in South x\merica during our season of 

 winter, and this is also the case with several of our rarest Sylvias\ 



Audubon found the White-headed Eagle (Falco leucocephalus) and the 

 Fish Hawk (F. halietos) having nests with their young full-fledged, and able 

 to fly in the month of November in Florida. The Barn Owl {Strix flammed) 

 lays its eggs in the unoccupied buildings of Charleston in November, and I 

 last year had a full-grown young bird of the great Horned Owl {Strix virgin- 

 iana) sent me on the 3rd of December, which had been taken near this City. 

 Now this is a season when our northern countries are locked up in frost and 

 snow, and it is not improbable that many of these birds following the open- 

 ing of spring may raise a second brood in our more northern climates. The 

 Rail (or Sora, as it is called in Virginia) and the Swallows have occasioned 

 more speculation, aud created more superstitious ideas with regard to their 

 winter residence, than any other of our American birds. The erroueous no- 

 tions with regard to the Rail have probably arisen from the sudden manner 

 in which it appears and disappears in the middle states, and the -erroneous 

 and unphilosophical notions with regard to the Swallows have originated in 

 Europe; and from there been transmitted to our own country. 



Rails after having been absent during the whole summer from the 

 middle states, suddenly make their appearance early in August, in immense 



