38 Gbe TOarWer 



is particularly the case with the wild Pigeons, the Cow Buntings {Icterus 

 pecoris), Wax Birds (Bomby ' cilia cardenensis), Blackbirds, the Wild Geese 

 and Ducks, and several species of Tringas or Sandbirds. Some species 

 move slowly and seem only urged along by the cold or by a scarcity of their 

 accustomed food, others pass rapidly and effect their migrations in a very 

 few days. Some flit along the earth's surface and rest here and there, as if 

 to take a glance at the fields, gardens and habitations of man; whilst others 

 mount high in the air and soar almost among the clouds, as if scarcely con- 

 descending to cast an eye on the cities and villages, and the puny efforts of 

 their inhabitants, and on the mountains and valleys beneath them. These 

 aerial voyagers by an admirable instinct seize upon a favored moment in 

 which the winds and the weather are fitted for these migrations. They 

 are not carried along by the wind, but are obliged from the construction of 

 their feathers to fly against it. They have a lore-knowledge of frost and 

 snows for weeks before they arrive, and they have a mysterious but sure 

 monitor within them to tell them of the coming of spring. They require 

 no chart and no compass to enable them to navigate the air and pass through 

 the regions of clouds, the thunder and the storm. They arrive at the end 

 of their destined voyage. There in the grove, the forest, the mountain, the 

 field or the garden they find food, shelter and a home prepared by the hand 

 of Providence. There in all probability they re-visit the very neighborhood, 

 and probably build in or near the same tree, or bush or tuft of grass in 

 which the year before they reared their young. This, too, may have been 

 the scene of their infancy and here they may have caroled their earliest song. 

 The disposition of birds to re-visit annually the place where they have once 

 bred is remarkable. A Bluebird that was marked so as to be known, built 

 its nest for ten successive years in a box that had been prepared for the 

 purple Martin. A Pewit {Muscicapa furca) has been known to re-visit the 

 same cave for nine successive years. A Robin bred for a still longer time 

 in the same apple tree, and a Red-tailed Hawk [JFalco borealis), which is dis- 

 tinguished from all others of this species on account of its plumage having 

 accidentally become white, has foi the last twelve winters kept possession 

 of a dead pine, in an old field in Colleton District, South Carolina. Whilst 

 many species of birds perform their migrations during the day, a great num- 

 ber travel in the night. The lover of nature who in the seasons of the mi- 

 grations of birds sees flock after flock passing overhead all day long, or wit- 

 nesses the Wrens, Bluebirds and Creepers just stopping for a few moments to 

 seize a worm or insect, and then as if impelled by destiny rising again on 

 the wing and urging onward, has also the evidence that they might pass 

 over him at night. He hears unusual sounds in the air. The single sharp 

 note of the Rice-bird repeated all around him is succeeded by the crake of 

 the Snipe resembling the grating of a wheel repeated at long intervals. 



