382 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 



sibility, but actual fact. To take birds, again, if all that we 

 now know, in connection with their migrations, is not sufficient 

 to establish a sense or faculty of direction,* which must be of 

 the utmost consequence to them, then, as it appears to mp, 

 the attempt to establish fact upon evidence, only,f may as 

 well be given up ; but without coming to birds, who probably 

 lead the way here, what I have myself seen accomplished b^^ 

 Bushmen, to say nothing of much more that is known both 

 in their case and that of other primitive peoples, has been 

 more than sufficient to make me, at least in one instance, suc- 

 cessfully resist the proud tendency not to admit what one 

 can't comprehend, that, through life, makes such sceptics of us 

 all. But there is no special organ, so far as we know, through 

 which this sense of direction is exercised, though, upon it, the 

 actual life both of birds and men must often depend. 



An attempt, as previously intimated, has been made to 

 explain the collective, ordered movements of birds — especially 

 their evolutions in flight, which have often excited wonder — by 

 calling them ' hereditary drill.' But words must work, to 

 explain facts, and, first of all, should make themselves relevant 

 to them. This is only the case with one of the two here offered. 

 No doubt these movements are hereditary, for they are a 

 part of all those that occur in natural history, but how, or in 

 what sense, are they drill ? What do we mean by drill ? Or, 

 rather, what does drill mean ? This is a matter for the dic- 

 tionary to decide, and to that decision we must needs adhere, 

 or there will only be confusion in the camp of King Agramant. 

 The New Dictionary, now in course of issue, gives, excluding 

 what is here irrelevant, the following definitions, viz. : — ' (4) 

 the action or method of instructing in military evolutions ; 

 military exercise or training ; an exercise of this nature. (5) 

 One who drills (others) ; a drill-master. (6 fig.) Rigorous 

 training or discipline ; exact routine ; strict methodical 

 instruction.' All these, except perhaps that of ' exact routine ' 

 tell us that instruction, given and received — something taught 

 and learned — is the essential meaning of the word. If therefore 

 we say that the aerial evolutions and simultaneous movements 

 of birds are due to hereditary drill, what we ought to mean 

 is that birds have been drilled in them, as soldiers are by their 

 officers, and now go through such drilling by instinct. If we 

 do not mean this we are not saying anything pertinent, but 

 if we do, then we have to account for the apparent absence of 

 the essential feature of instruction, viz., an instructor, and. 



* Or something else still more mysterious, in which this, as a result, is 

 contained. 



•\ My view is that only a quite limited stock of human opinion is really 

 based upon evidence — and that of a neutral kind, by which I mean neither 

 very attractive nor very repugnant to the holder. 



Naturalis'', 



