HIEUNDO EUSTICA. 81 



that animals are automata ; and though not going that length, I am of 

 opinion that there is a great deal of force in the notion. 



Can we find, then, in Nature, any case of migration constantly and 

 regularly performed (say from the New World to the Old) without the aid 

 of instinct ? We can. 



In 1869, when grouse-shooting in Skye, I obtained certain seeds which, 

 by the kindness of Mr. W. Carruthers, of the British Museum, were found to 

 be those oi Entada scandens, Mucuna urens, and Guilandina bonduc^ Linn. These 

 seeds do not grow in Europe ; they migrate from the coasts of America to those 

 of Skye— a proved fact, by which, before Columbus's time, a person might 

 have discovered the existence of land in that direction. They are brought 

 by the Gulf- stream, and arrive without the aid of instinct. 



It is true that migrating birds are not taken usually by a wind, as thistle- 

 down, or, as these seeds, by a stream ; but there is one identical fact : 

 neither birds nor seed Can return, once started they do not come back, till 

 the journey is finished. 



A bird does not fly with the wind, as one might at first suppose, because 

 of his clothing; he must keep his feathers smooth. No lady is more 

 particular about her dress than a bird is in keeping his plumage in order; 

 he does not like the wind to ruffle his plumage. 



To show that I am now stating a fact acknowledged by scientists, I quote 

 the following passages from the ' History of Creation,' by Ernst Haeckel (fas 

 est ab hoste doceri), translated by Professor E. Ray Lankester. Vol. i. 

 p. 354 : " Migrations are common to all organisms, and are the real 

 cause of the wide distribution of the different species of organisms on the 

 earth's surface. Just as men leave over-crowded States, so all animals and 

 plants migrate from their over-crowded homes." 



Here we may note that migration is divisible into four kinds, probably 



