The Zoologist — August, 1869. 1791 



pass over in safety below. Even the all-devouring element of fire 

 was tried in vain : when lighted to arrest their route, they rushed into 

 the blaze in such myriads of millions as to extinguish it. Those that 

 thus patiiotically devoted themselves to certain death for the com- 

 mon good, were but as the pioneers or advanced guard of a countless 

 army, which by their self-sacrifice was enabled to pass unimpeded and 

 unhurt." 



The migrative movements of reptiles and fishes appear generally con- 

 nected with the duty of reproduction which all animals have to perform, 

 and is therefore so far periodical ; but there are deviations from this 

 rule although not so decidedly marked, clearly ascertained or thoroughly 

 authenticated, as to take rank with cognate phenomena in insects. 

 Still there is vast importance in the migrations of fishes, bringing as 

 they do food to our very doors, and drawing with them in the migra- 

 tive current other creatures not impelled by the same instinct of pro- 

 creation. The same may be said of the migration of frogs and toads, 

 which have so excruciated the minds of thinkers, and have compelled 

 the non-thinking masses to take repose in the cloud hypothesis and 

 religiously to believe that, like meteoric iron, they fell in showers. 

 Proceeding to birds I find abundant evidence of the phenomenon in 

 question : I select three examples. 



The Passengeb Pigeon. — This bird is called "Columba migratoria" 

 from its extraordinary migrations, which seem to have achieved a 

 world-wide notoriety. Wilson, the greatest biographer of the birds of 

 the United Slates, attempts a kind of solution to this phenomenon, 

 which he attributes to a want of food ; but his theory does not appear 

 satisfactor}', inasmuch as it is unaccompanied by any statistics what- 

 ever, or any kind of evidence that the movement has its origin in the 

 scarcity of food in any particular district ; indeed, the very converse 

 of this is the truth, for on some of these occasions the pigeons appear 

 to leave a land which might be figuratively described as "flowing with 

 milk and honey," and to take up their temporary residence where 

 starvation and destruction stare them in the face. Then, again, if this 

 were simply a raid in quest of food, it seems as though the movement 

 must defeat its object by multiplying the consumers without increasing 

 the supply. Be this as it may, it is certain there is no ascertained 

 periodicity, or, so far as human sagacity can penetrate, no rationality 

 in the migrations ; they occur at no particular season, at no fixed 

 intervals ; they neither precede nor follow periods of scarcity or years 



