166 Otto Herman : 



discernible : mention is made of the gift of presentiment, 

 of the miraculous, of puzzles which, if reduced to Bacon's 

 terminology, are nothing but " want of inductive knowledge 

 and of positive notion resulting therefrom." 



It would require the foresight and patience of a Theseus to 

 unravel the labyrinth of peasants' maxims dealing with the 

 world of birds and the foretelling of the weather. 



Taken as a whole, Science did not get much farther than 

 the amassing of data of arrivals and departures which finally 

 formed a chaos that daunted and still daunts the boldest 

 xuthors. 



Most of them preferred to take the thing at the easy end : 

 to draw fargoing conclusions from a few data, as their 

 ingenuity, or sometimes only their fancy, dictated. 



This state of things naturally resulted in many singular 

 contradictions, of which I would like, with your kind per- 

 mission, to mention a few. 



Naumann : There are definite routes of migration. 

 Homey er : There are no definite routes of migration. 



Weismann : The birds learn how to migrate. 

 Gaetke : The birds act by instinct. 



Palmen : Orientation is a traditional gift. 

 Weismann : Orientation is congenital. 



Gaetke : There is no leadership. 

 Weismann : There is leadership. 



Wallace : The weather has no essential influence. 

 Homey er : The weather has an essential influence. 



Naumann : Temperature plays a very important part. 

 Angot : Temperature is not an incentive. 



Lucanus : The flight takes place at a height of 3000 feet. 

 Gaetke : The flight goes on at a height sometimes of 

 35,000 feet. 



Braun : The original home of the birds is the tropics. 

 Deichler : The original home is not the tropics ; etc., etc. 



The prevalence of the speculative tendency in endeavouring 

 to explain the movement, led many authors to assume migra- 



