INSTINCT OP BIRDS. 287 



in this region, whether animal or vegetable, attains its growth. 

 In six weeks I have seen the eggs laid, the birds hatched, and 

 their first moult half gone through ; their association into flocks 

 begun, and preparations for leaving the country. 



" That the Creator should have ordered that millions of 

 diminutive, tender creatures, should cross spaces of country, in 

 all appearance a thousand times more congenial for all their 

 purposes, to reach this poor, desolate, and deserted land, to 

 people it, as it were, for a time, and to cause it to be enlivened 

 with the songs of the sweetest of the feathered musicians, for 

 only two months at most, and then, by the same extraordinary 

 instinct, should cause them all to suddenly abandon the country, 

 is as wonderful as it is beautiful and grand. 



" Six weeks ago this whole country was one sheet of ice ; the 

 land was covered with snow, the air was filled with frost, and 

 subject to incessant storms, and the whole country a mere mass 

 of apparently useless matter. Now the grass is abundant, and 

 of rich growth, the flowers are met with at every step, insects 

 fill the air, and the fruits are ripe. The sun shines, and its 

 influence is as remarkable as it is beautiful; the snow-banks 

 appear as if about to melt, and here and there there is some- 

 thing of a summerish look. But in thirty days all is over ; the 

 dark northern clouds will come down on the mountains ; the 

 rivulets and pools, and the bays themselves, will begin to freeze ; 

 weeks of snow-storms will follow, and change the whole cover- 

 ing of these shores and country, and Nature will assume not 

 only a sleeping state, but one of desolation and death. Wonder- 

 'ful ! wonderful ! wonderful ! But it requires an abler pen 

 than mine to paint the picture of this all-wonderfal country. 



" August 5. This has been a fine day ! We have had no new 

 hurricane, and I have finished the drawings of several new 

 birds. It appears that northern birds come to maturity sooner 

 than southern ones ; this is reversing the rule in the human 

 species. The migration of birds is much more wonderful thau 

 that of fishes, because the latter commonly go feeling their 

 way along the shores, from one clime to another, and return to 

 the very same river, creek, or even hole, to deposit their spawn, 

 as the birds do to their former nest or building-ground as long 

 as they live. But the latter do not feel their way, but launch- 



