96 On the Migration of North American Birds. 



in thousands performing their annual migrations, along the environs, 

 and even the very streets of our city. The green swallow, [Hirundo 

 bicolor,) is found in Florida, during the coldest weather of that 

 country, and was during the last winter (1832) seen every day 

 with the exception of about two weeks, in considerable numbers in 

 the neighborhood of Charleston. The barn swallow and purple 

 martin, {H. purpurea,) leave us earlier and return later, the chim- 

 ney swallow follows last in the train on its return from the south as 

 it is the first to leave us in autumn. Thus we perceive that there is 

 nothing mysterious, nothing unnatural in the migration of the swal- 

 lows. 



When the period of migration arrives, birds evince an uncon- 

 trolable restlessness of disposition, as if conscious that an important 

 undertaking, was at hand. The Snow and Canada Geese, {^Anser 

 hyperborea and A. Canadensis,) which I have had for some years in 

 a state of domestication, (although in other respects perfectly tame) 

 make constant efforts, on the return of every spring, to obey the im- 

 pulse of nature, and take their departure for the north. Although 

 a joint from a wing of each has been removed, yet they make attempts 

 at flying, and when at this season they are enabled to escape from 

 their enclosure, they hurry off in a northern direction, as if determin- 

 ed to make their long journey on foot. Wilson gives a well authen- 

 ticated anecdote of a female wild goose having been domesticated 

 by Mr. Piatt of Long Island, which, after flying off on the following 

 spring, returned in the autumn with three of its comrades or young 

 and the birds were all living several years afterwards. I have pre- 

 served in an aviary, robins, finches and orioles that had been pro- 

 cured when young at the north, and no sooner did the spring (the 

 time of migration) arrive, than they exhibited by their constant flut- 

 tering a disposition to escape and the moment this was effected they 

 flew off not to the south or west but as directly in the line of migra- 

 tion as if guided by a compass. These are facts of which the hum- 

 blest individual may inform himself, but which neither our wisdom or 

 philosophy can explain. 



The manner in which birds perform their migrations is also de- 

 serving of notice. At the approach of autumn, when the cold is be- 

 ginning to drive the insects to their winter retreats, when the earth 

 begins every where to present the image of desolation and death, 

 when many terrestrial animals are preparing for themselves a shelter 

 from the cold, it is then and sometirties a few weeks earlier (as if in 



