152 CLASS AVES. 



drag out a miserable existence, and constantly perish from 

 famine, in the midst of frost and snow*. 



As our summer birds abandon us towards the close of 

 autumn, we receive, at the same time, fresh supplies of feathered 

 hordes from the populous North. When the weather grows 

 dull, we see passing through the misty air large detachments 

 of woodcocks, of lapwings, of plovers : these are followed by 

 triangular bands of cranes, storks, of teal, of wild-geese, and 

 ducks. They alight in inundated fields or reedy marshes, or 

 spread themselves in the glades of humid woods denuded of 

 their foliage. They continually utter clamorous and melan- 

 choly cries, in accordance with the bleak and wintry scene 

 around them, like the whistling of the north-east wind through 

 the defoliated forests. It is a most curious circumstance to 

 observe the cranes return and come back every year, on the 

 same days, with the most marvellous exactness. 



The palmipedes and grallse come to us in winter from the 

 northern climates ; where they return, in spring, to their cold 

 and humid habitations, whence they had been driven by 

 the ice. The insectivorous and granivorous races come back 

 with the return of the flowers and fine weather. They re- 

 turn from southern regions into their native country, allured 

 by the expectation of renewed enjoyment and abundant food. 



It is at the periods of the equinoxes that these great voyages 

 of birds are performed. These are also the periods of great 

 winds, as if nature had intended that the birds should be thus 



* The female of the greenfinch emigrates the first into Southern Europe, 

 and comes back in spring to find the male. It is not the rigour of cold 

 which obliges birds to emigrate, for our wrens can support the severest 

 winters, but it is the want of sufficient food. Their longest voyages take 

 place quickly ; and when it is necessary to cross arms of the sea, 

 the birds rest themselves in islands. Thus immense numbers of quails 

 are seen every year in the isles of the Archipelago. As to the immersion 

 of swcvllows under water during winter, it appears totally devoid of all 

 probability. 



