The Zoologist— August, 1869. 1795 



even a single bird is very large ; so that it appears whenever they 

 alighted they made free with the produce of the land, and evinced no 

 inordinate haste to move forward. This exodus, like the others, knew 

 of no return ; and we may conclude that all the individuals which 

 escaped our naturalists and our gamekeepers, succeeded in realizing 

 the Atlantic ocean and perished in its waves. — Montagu's Ornitho- 

 logical Dictionary, by Newman, p. 141. 



I will cite but one instance of this phenomenon in Quadrupeds : — 



The Lemming. — Mr. Wood has summed up in a few brief sentences, 

 which introduce rather than exhaust the subject, our very imperfect 

 knowledge of the movements of the Lemming. He says, — " At un- 

 certain and distant intervals of lime, many of the northern parts of 

 Europe, such as Lapland, Norway and Sweden, are subjected to a 

 strange invasion. Hundreds of little dark mouse-like animals sweep 

 over the land, like clouds of locusts suddenly changed into quadru- 

 peds, coming from some unknown home and going no one knows 

 whilher. These creatures are the lemmings, and their sudden ap- 

 pearances are so entirely mysterious that the Norwegians look upon 

 them as having been rained from the clouds upon the earth. Driven 

 onwards by some overpowering instinct these vast hordes travel in a 

 straight line, permitting nothing but a smooth perpendicular wall or 

 rock to turn them from their course. If they should happen to meet 

 with any living being, they immediately attack it, knowing no fear, 

 but only urged by indiscriminate rage. Any river or lake they swim 

 without hesitation, and rather seem to enjoy the water than fear it. 

 If a stack or a corn-rick should stand in their way, they settle the 

 matter by eating their way through it, and will not be diverted from 

 their course even by fire: the country over which they pass is utterly 

 devastated by them, and it said that cattle will not touch the grass on 

 which a lemming has trodden. These migratory hosts are accom- 

 panied by clouds of predacious birds, and by many predacious 

 quadrupeds, who find a continual feast spread for them as long as the 

 lemmings are on their pilgrimage. While they are crossing the rivers 

 and lakes, the fish come in for their share of the banquet, and make 

 great havoc among their columns. It is a very remarkable fact that 

 the reindeer is often seen to chase the lemmings, and the Norwegians 

 say that the deer is in the habit of eating them. This statement 

 seems, however, to be rather of doubtful character. The termination 

 of these extraordinary migrations is generally the sea, when the 



